La Principessa y el Matador
by La Mademoiselle
Summary: A collection of unrelated oneshots focusing on the pairing SpainxFem!Romano, human names used. Current Installment: The Tale of la Principessa y el Matador *COMPLETE FOR NOW*
1. Introduction and Welcome

Hola~! Welcome to La Principessa y el Matador! There's not much to this, but a little collection of non-connected oneshots, short stories, drabbles, songfics, and theme drabbles centering around the pairing Spain and Fem!Romano.

The premise is simple, just a way for me to practice writing non-chapter stories of varying lengths, tackling different writing challenges, and killing time not spent on DeviantArt all while writing about a favorite pairing of mine.

Yeah, it's het please deal with it or leave if you don't like it, don't bitch at me about pairings.

Anyway, enough jabber. I'm going to say this one big time at the beginning, and mention it in small notes along the way but, here it is in your face the first time:

**DISCLAIMER NOTICE: I DO NOT OWN AXIS POWERS HETALIA, OR THE CHARACTERS CONTAINED WITHIN UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.**

There, get it? Got it? Good, let's go.

Note about Original Characters (OCs) and Languages: OCs will show up, I'll make a note of them, but they'll be side characters. Mostly the OC guest will be Catalonia, Amira Isabel Carriedo, Spain's older sister. As for languages, I DON'T SPEAK SPANISH OR ITALIAN, BUT FRENCH. I have to use a translator for both, but I'll try to provide glossaries, and if my translation is wrong, please correct me politely, don't be obnoxious about it.

And one more thing before we go: Romance is the only steady genre, themes will change, moods will change, I'll keep up with this until I get bored or run out of ideas, human names will be used (Spain: Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, Fem!Romano: Lovina Vargas)


	2. Just This Once

Here's the first installment of my series, this is a short story (longer than a proper oneshot, or even just a really long oneshot)

**Title:** Just This Once  
**Pairing:** Spain/Fem!Romano, human names used.  
**Rating:** PG for swearing and a kiss or two  
**Plot:** Lovina Vargas always had her own way of telling Antonio she cared about him, even if she wouldn't admit it to herself.  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas, Amira Isabel "Catalonia!OC" Carriedo

**Language notes:**  
Gracias (Spanish) Thank You  
Querida (Spanish) Dearest  
Por Favor (Spanish) Please  
Te Quiero (Spanish) I love you  
Germa Petit (Catalan) Little brother

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA OR SPAIN OR FEM!ROMANO, JUST THE WORDS AND THE CHARACTER "CATALONIA"**

* * *

"Did you get beat up _again_?" Lovina watched Antonio drag himself in, covered in bruises and cuts, bleeding on the floor she'd just cleaned earlier that morning. "Some boss you are, can't even hold your own in a fight." She put her small hands on where her hips would be if she had them and watched him pull himself upright, using a nearby table for balance. More blood dripped on the floor and he panted, holding his side.

"I'm home, Lovina," he told her, smiling despite the pain he was in. Her brown eyes widened more than she thought them capable of. He could smile? Even when he was hurt and she greeted him so coldly?

"W-Well…" she said, blushing lightly, "At least you made it in one piece..." She shuffled off to go back to her duties, trying not to think of the blood on the floor or his smile.

Later, she came to his rooms to do a bit of tidying up and found him sitting on the sofa trying to bandage his wounds. "Ah, Lovina-chan!" he said brightly, looking up from what he was doing. "Would you mind helping me?" he reached out a hand to her, still smiling at her, though she could tell he was trying to hide the pain of his injuries from her. Her tough resolve crumbled and she climbed up onto the sofa, taking the alcohol and cotton balls and tending to his wounds.

"Well, alright," she sighed, "Just this once…"

"Gracias, Querida…" she ducked her head to hide her blush, unable to meet his eyes.

* * *

Lovina watched the couples swirling around the dance floor, colors and faces flashing before her eyes as they passed her. She sighed with envy as the dance ended and she watched Francis delicately kiss the hand of Antonio's beautiful older sister Amira while others stood, waiting for their chance to dance with her. The Southern Italian slipped out of the large room and out into the gardens to escape the people and the heat inside, heading straight for her favorite fountain. She glanced into the water, seeing the same skinny, flat young woman she'd been earlier that morning. Amira had often tried to assure her that she still had growing to do, and that when she blossomed, she'd be a very beautiful woman. Lovina often suspected the Catalan just told her those things to make her feel better. She pouted at her reflection, making her look like someone trying to pretend to be a child and not succeeding

She sighed, she was being stupid again and turned away to look up at the moon, shifting uncomfortably in the fancy party dress Antonio had forced her to wear for the evening. Unconsciously, she smoothed the folds in the light pink silk, examining her hands as she did so. "I thought I'd find you here," she jumped, nearly falling into the fountain before Antonio caught her, grinning and chuckling a little.

"W-What do you want?" she blushed, pulling herself away from him, rubbing her bare shoulders. The heat she'd felt from being cooped up inside had worn off and she forced herself not to shiver in the cool evening air.

"Come on, let's go back inside, I don't want you to catch cold," he pulled his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Why do you care?" she huffed, trying to pretend she wasn't grateful for the extra warmth.

"Because, I don't want my Romano to get sick, especially since I want to dance with her before the night's over," he took her arm and led her back to the party.

"I don't dance," she told him.

"Please?" he smiled and batted his green eyes at her, "We can even do it out here, if you want, no one will see you, even if you mess up."

"Well… alright, just this once!" his smiled widened and he took her in his arms, placing one hand on her waist. Strains of music from the room nearby floated out to them as he began to sway, leading her in a slow dance. Every time she stumbled or missed the beat, he gently redirected her, closing his eyes as they spun around the makeshift dance floor. Lovina felt her heart race just a little, looking at his happy, peaceful face, feeling the oddest desire to just abandon all sense and kiss him on the lips the way she'd seen Francis do to just about everyone over and over. Then the dance ended and that strange feeling went with it, leaving Lovina standing there, feeling awkward and nonplussed.

"Gracias, Lovina," Antonio bowed, pressing his lips to the hand he still held.

* * *

"Good luck, Lovina," Antonio told her, patting her head as she prepared to board the waiting ship bound for her proper home in Italy with her sister. Somehow, the word home sounded hollow, despite her apparent eagerness to finally get over the goodbyes and just leave out of Barcelona's port. The truth was, she barely remembered spending more than a month at most in her homeland, it was beautiful, maybe more so than the land Antonio called his own, but she was scared. Whenever she thought of "home" she imagined Antonio's house with him and all the tomatoes, the long, slow, sunny days. The thought of having to call somewhere else "home" terrified her more than anything else. "Lovina?" Antonio's voice snapped her out of her musings.

"Make it quick, I want to get out of here," she snapped, lying to both herself and him.

"You can always come back and visit whenever you want, you know," he smiled at her. She glared at him, not wanting him to know how much she just wanted to stay.

"I…" she trailed off biting her lip as the first wave of homesickness hit her. She wasn't even on the damn ship yet and here she was ready to bring on the tears. He must have actually noticed because moments later he'd pulled her into a tight hug, whispering encouragements into her ear.

"I'll miss you, Querida," he told her, pouting a little. "Can I at least have a little goodbye kiss?"

She was about to refuse, but something in her mind told her to just do it, to savor it as he turned a tanned cheek to her to kiss. "Alright… but just this once," she caved and leaned in to give him a peck on what she thought was going to be his cheek but ended up being his lips as he turned his head at the last second.

Moments later a loud "smack" could be heard across the city as a flustered young Italian slapped the hell out of the country of passion before stomping up the gangway and trying to calm her furious blush. She forced the memory of his wide grin when she realized just what had happened out of her mind and told herself that she didn't like him and that she didn't want to kiss him again. Still… the sight of that smile made her heart beat just a little faster…

"You knew she was going to do that, didn't you?" Amira arched an eyebrow at her younger brother as he stood up, still grinning and pressing his fingers to his reddened cheek where Lovina had slapped him.

"Maybe…" he said, glancing at the older former-nation.

"You little masochist," Amira shook her head, "Come on, let's go to my house, it's getting to be time for the afternoon siesta."

"Yeah…" he sighed, watching the retreating ship, eyes scanning for any sign of his Italian, "I miss her already…"

"I know, Germà Petit, I know," she said, putting her arm around his shoulders and leading them back up to her house in the hills.

* * *

"Antonio! Get out here now, damn it!" Lovina stood in the middle of the tomato grove, hands on her hips, tapping a sandaled foot impatiently. "Where are you, you bastard!" she set off through the tomatoes, searching for the elusive Spaniard. She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her capris and dialed his number only for it to go directly to voicemail. She recalled she'd yelled at him the night before for forgetting to charge it again. She was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.

As she meandered through the tomatoes, she stepped in a hole she hadn't seen and fell, shouting as her ankle twisted painfully. She winced, pulling herself into a sitting position, rubbing the injured appendage. She'd give it a few minutes to stop hurting and then go on her way. Unfortunately, when she tried to stand, she cried out and tumbled back to the ground as her ankle protested the weight she was trying to put on it. She tried standing again with the same result and she just gave up after thirty minutes of trying and failing to stand up. She sat in the dirt, under the sun, alone with no way to get hold of anyone. Her phone had gone flying when she'd fallen the first time. Then Lovina did something she absolutely hated: she started crying just a little.

What if she was out here for the rest of the day or even all night? What if no one came looking for her? She was scared and in a lot of pain. She couldn't even tell where in the tomato grove she was or how far from the house she'd gone. "Antonio…" she whispered, hoping he found her before it got dark and who-knew-what started creeping around. She sat there for a while, unable to tell how much time passed, though she knew it was getting late judging by the lengthening shadows.

"Lovina?" she perked up at the sound of someone calling her, "Lovina, where are you?" She recognized Antonio's voice, though she'd never heard him use that tone, that mix of panic and urgency as she listened for footsteps. "Lovina!"

"I'm over here!" she could hardly work up the irritation to scold him or swear at him, or demand what the hell took him so long, no she was too grateful he'd found her before it had gotten dark. He was at her side in an instant, scooping her up into his arms.

"What happened?" he asked, looking more alert and aware than she normally saw him.

"I was looking for you, and I fell, simple as that," she huffed. She wasn't going to tell him she was scared, no way. He carried her back to the house and set her down on the sofa. "You need to keep your phone with you, you idiot," she scolded as he left and returned with some bandages and an ice pack.

"I was charging it," he blinked at her, wrapping her injured ankle. He finished and smiled at her, gently touching her cheek with rough, callused fingers. Her face flushed at the contact and she made to push the hand away. "You were crying," he brushed his thumb underneath one of her eyes, making her blush even more.

"N-No I wasn't! And even if I was, it was because I was mad, they were angry tears!" she flailed a little, trying to make him lose that goofy-looking smile, the one that made her heart beat just a little faster.

"If you say so, Querida," he said, his smile getting wider. "Since I have you, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" damn that smile of his. It made her putty in his hands every time. She didn't want to admit she liked it, or even that she wanted him to smile at her like that more often.

"I've figured out why you always say 'just this once'," he told her.

"T-That's not a question," she pointed out.

"I know, but, is it because you like me?" his smile turned into the biggest, goofiest grin she'd ever seen on him and she knew her face was redder than a tomato. How? How had he figured that out? She finally managed to demand an explanation and he shrugged. "You always blushed when you said it and you'd do whatever I asked," he threaded his fingers into her hair. "So, do you like me or not?"

"I…" she'd never really thought about it, always tried to push those feelings out of her mind. She knew she liked him, but how much, she never really wanted to admit to. Instead of giving her time to answer, the Spaniard leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Lovina felt her eyes widen more than she thought was physically possible and her face heat up. Tried to shove the emotions that raced through her to the back of her mind. She was not sitting here letting Antonio kiss her (quite well at that) and she was not wanting to just wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him back. After realizing she wasn't responding, he pulled back, looking slightly disappointed. He still had his hand in her hair and leaned his forehead against hers. "Antonio…" she decided to hell with the words, leaned in, and kissed him.

It took him a few moments, but he started kissing her back, pulling her against him. "_Te quiero_, Lovina…" he whispered, panting as they broke apart for air.

"Ti…" he put a finger to her lips, silencing her.

"Say it in Spanish, _por favor_?" he asked, grinning a little.

"Fine… but just this once," she couldn't help but smile herself when his grin got wider. "_Te quiero_, Antonio."

And then he kissed her again.


	3. Interruption

Drabble fic, only about a page in Word skipping line between paragraphs

**Title:** Interruption  
**Rating:** PG for swearing  
**Plot:** Lovina is having the perfect night to herself, too bad Antonio has other plans  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA DAMN IT**

* * *

Lovina pulled the blanket around her and blew on the mug of hot chocolate. She had everything she needed: movie, popcorn, tomatoes, blanket, comfy pajamas, hot chocolate, remote. Tonight was going to be the perfect girl's night in.

"LOVINAAAAAAAAA~!" a pair of arms threw themselves around her shoulders, squeezing them tight.

Except for that.

"Damn it, Antonio! Is it too much to ask for at least one fucking hour to myself?" she yelped, nearly spilling her hot chocolate. "I told you I was just going to stay home and watch a movie _alone_!"

"I was lonely…" he said, pouting a little. "I missed my little tomato." He reached over and kissed her temple. "So, what are you watching?"

"You can't watch it with me!" she snapped, shrugging his arms away from her body. As usual, the Spaniard ignored her and simply leaped over the back of the couch to plop down next to her. Fearing for her hot chocolate, she set the mug on the end table and gave up trying to kick him out. Knowing she'd given in, Antonio grinned and pulled her blanket around him. "Hey! Get your own blanket! This one's not big enough for both of us!" she tried to grab it back.

"I think we can share it easily," he said, wrapping the blanket around him and pulling her into his arms, "There, see? We're both nice and warm!"

"Fuck…" she growled. He laughed at that.

"Start the movie?" he handed her the remote and snuggled her close. Lovina rolled her eyes and hit the play button.

She wasn't going to tell him this, no way, but her evening had improved considerably, especially when he started kissing her ten minutes into the movie.


	4. Nightmare

Next installment, about the same length as the second, maybe a little longer.

**Title:** Nightmare  
**Rating:** PG for blood and violence  
**Plot:** There's a reason why Lovina never watches horror movies  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

She shifted, stuck in that awkward and incredibly annoying phase where she was neither awake or asleep. She didn't want to accept it and wake up all the way. Someone came in the room and she had half a mind to pretend she was still asleep in order to make the person go away. The heavy breathing of her companion made her a bit uncomfortable, but she just kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

She was not prepared for the burst of pain that tore through her side. Her eyes flew open, screaming as the pain intensified. Looking up, her blood ran cold and a scream tore its way out of her throat. "A-Antonio! No! Don't!" she held her side, shrieking a little bit as she touched a warm, stick substance that came away red when she pulled her hand back. The Spaniard smirked, licking the blood off one of the long, sharp knives he kept in the kitchen. He'd stabbed her… _he'd stabbed her_ and it looked like he was about to do it again as he raised the knife over his head.

She screamed again, sitting up despite the pain in her side and tried to get as much distance between them as she could. She was too tangled up in the sheets to get very far and panic raced through her. She started to cry, begging, pleading for him not to do this, apologizing for whatever she'd done to cause him to completely flip out. He slashed downward and the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was the metal of the knife flashing in the moonlight.

* * *

"Lovina! Lovina, wake up!" someone was shaking her roughly. Still lost in her dreams, she struggled, screaming, fighting. "Ow… Lovina! Querida, what's wrong?" the shaking got harder and was enough to wake her up. Her screams died down, but she continued to shake and cry. "Shhh… Querida… it's alright…" she glanced over at Antonio as he pulled her into his arms, rocking her back and forth the way he did when she had had nightmares as a child, tucking her head under his chin and petting her hair. "You scared me… I woke up, you were screaming at the top of your lungs…."

She sniffed a little bit, feeling him kiss the top of her head and told him everything. He held her close, rubbing her shoulder. "T-Then… your face… it was like b-back then… back when y-you were a conquistador… it was like you were there but not really and…" she dissolved into frightened tears once more.

"Well…" he said, looking at her and brushing away her tears, "I think that's the last slasher movie for you…" She nodded, feeling him lay down with her in his arms. "Go back to sleep… I'm right here…" he smiled, snuggling her, as she closed her eyes. He comforted her until she was asleep again, his smile fading. "I'm going to _kill_ Prussia for making her watch that with us."


	5. Nevermore

I apologize in advance for the angsty-ness... I'll try to come up with something happier next time! DX I spent a good ten minutes trying not to cry as I wrote this...

**Title:** Nevermore  
**Rating:** PG-13 for Character death and language  
**Plot:** AU, a selfish tantrum leads to tragic consquences and leaves Lovina unable to accept the past and move on  
**Characters:** Lovina Vargas, Feliciana Vargas, Antonio Carriedo, Carlos Carriedo (OC), Mercedes Carriedo (OC)

Large blocks of text in Italics indicates a flashback

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

"FUCKING SPANIARD!" she hurled something, she didn't know what, against the wall, hearing it shatter on impact. "FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU!" she continued the throw things, screaming, tearing the room apart before she fell to her knees, giving into the sobs that had built up in her chest. "Fuck you…"

_He was only supposed to be gone for ten minutes. Ten minutes just to run to the store to pick up the shampoo she'd insisted she needed because there was no way in fucking hell that she was going to use his. But when twenty, thirty minutes had passed and he hadn't returned home, she knew something was up and tried to call him, only for it to ring and go to voicemail. Figuring he had gotten distracted and could hear the phone, she quit calling forty minutes after he was supposed to get home._

_Two hours later, she'd been awakened by someone ringing the doorbell. Figuring it was Antonio having forgotten his keys, she jumped up off the couch and answered the door to two policemen. Her blood ran cold at the sight. "Excuse me, are you Miss Lovina Vargas?" the shorter of the two asked._

_"I am…" she had her heart in her throat._

_"We're sorry, Miss Vargas, but your fiancé, Antonio Carriedo was killed tonight in an attempted robbery," that was all she heard as her mind began to shut down. Killed? Robbery?_

Lovina continued to huddle on the floor of their bedroom, the sobs turning to screams of pain. Why? Why Antonio? Why did she have to be such a spoiled brat? Why didn't she let him talk her into going without the fucking shampoo for one fucking night? If she hadn't been such a stupid princess, if he hadn't gone out…

But it was too late for that. He was dead, and he was not coming back.

_The first few days after the murder were a blur. The police didn't release the body until after their investigation was done and so Lovina could pretend that it was all just a terrible, terrible nightmare and that Antonio would be there when she woke up to smile and hold her and tell her everything was alright. In fact, she went to sleep many nights to dream about him, only to be reminded of his absence when she woke up the next morning and his side of the bed was empty._

_Finally, the body was released to his family, his brothers and sisters and the funeral was planned. Lovina had been there of course, but the discussions might as well have been just white noise in her ears. She knew that by helping them plan, talking about funeral homes, and burial sites, and churches, and flower arrangements, she would have to accept that Antonio's death was real, and she didn't want to do that. She wished in vain that he would come back to her, smile, and laugh and pretend it was just a joke, that his friends Francis and Gilbert had put him up to it._

_But they hadn't. They'd looked equally shocked when Carlos, Antonio's oldest brother, had told them. Gilbert, according to Ludwig, Lovina's sister's boyfriend, had gone out and nearly drank himself into oblivion. Francis… it was hard to know with him, but he stayed with the family, trying to bring what comfort he could._

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! HOW _DARE_ YOU DIE ON ME!" she screamed, pounding the floor like an angry child. She was ruining her dress, the new one that Mercedes, one of Antonio's sisters, had bought for her. She didn't care. She didn't want to go to the funeral, didn't want to accept that her Antonio was never coming back to her no matter how much she cried and screamed and wanted to turn back the time and beg him not to go out there.

"Sorella?" Feliciana knocked on the door and walked inside, surveying the damage Lovina had done with wide eyes. "Come on, it's time, Mercedes sent me up here to get you…" she pulled on her older sister's arm, trying to get her to move.

"I'm not fucking going!" Lovina shouted, trying to shake her sister off. "I'm not… I don't want to… I don't want him to be… dead…" she choked on her words, too far gone in her pain. Seeing as she couldn't budge the distraught young woman, Feliciana ran downstairs, bringing Carlos and Ludwig with her to drag Lovina out of the room and into the waiting limousine that would take the family to the church for the funeral.

Lovina didn't remember much of the funeral, she'd broken down early on and had to be escorted out into the vestibule for the majority of the service until it was time for the internment. The internment was as bad if not worse than the funeral itself as she was forced to watch the casket with _her_ Antonio lowered into the dirt, taken away from her forever. All she could do was clutch at her sister and sob uncontrollably as the priest said the final few words and the group of mourners turned away to gather at Carlos' house for condolences and the like. Lovina felt like a robot, accepting sympathy and well-wishes, smiling vacantly whenever someone told a funny story, she was there, but not there, her heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

In the weeks, and months, and years that followed, Lovina never really recovered from the loss. She became reclusive, rarely leaving the house, if at all. With Antonio gone, she reasoned, why even bother to keep going?

Four years, three months, and five days after she'd received the news that Antonio had been killed, Lovina Vargas died falling down the steps in her home. After her death was ruled accidental, she was buried next to Antonio in the cemetery.


	6. Placating

A bit of insane comedy to offset the really depressing death!fic. This was written for a friend at House-of-Hetalia RP on DeviantArt who roleplays as Fem!Poland. So warnings: Insanity, angry Polish tomboys, accents, oblivious Spaniards, and footballs abound

**Title (Full):** Placating (or why Big Brother Aragon is a complete and utter idiot)

**Rating:** PG for... well... violence, and footballs, and Catholic Spaniards

**Summary:** Antonio's got a difficult choice on his hands which can end in only one way: Painfully... for either him or his brother...

**Characters:** Antonio "Spain" Carriedo, Felicyta "Fem!Poland" Lukasiewicz, Lovina "Fem!Romano" Vargas, Toris "Lithuania" Laurinitis, Carlos "Aragon(OC)" Carriedo

Note: The way that Fem!Poland presented here is different from Male!Poland in Hetalia Canon, in order to avoid making the characters too similar for the roleplay, the person wishing to roleplay as the genderbent character must create a couple quirks on the original personality. In Fem!Poland's case, she's a tomboy, hates skirts and girly things like that, and seems to dislike Liet. The accent she is portrayed as speaking is an attempt to recreate a Polish-English accent which she only speaks when angry.

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA, THE PORTRAYAL OF FEM!POLAND BELONGS TO CYTA ON DEVIANTART**

* * *

"A-Antonio… help me!" Carlos crawled through the door of his brother's study, causing the younger nation to glance up from his _nap_paperwork. Antonio had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at his older brother's state of terror. The man was covered in cuts and bruises, his nose was crooked, bleeding, and probably broken, and one of his eyes was already swollen shut.

"Aye Dios mio, Carlos, what happened to you? Get stuck in a revolving door again?" Antonio asked, grinning.

"No! Worse…" he looked around, "Demons, two she-devils descended upon me when I told someone she ought to dress more…" He never got to finish what he was saying as a black and white football nailed him in the back of the head.

"Dere's de bastard!" Antonio watched as the ball rolled across the floor only to be stopped by a blonde girl who slipped her foot under it to pop it up in the air and catch it easily.

"We told you we'd find you no matter where you hid!" a brunette, about the same height as the blonde put her hands on her hips, grinning smugly.

"Ah! Hola Cyta, Lovi! What brings you here?" Antonio waved happily from his desk, ignorant of the fact that his older brother was now cowering on the floor like a kicked puppy and muttering about Hell in his antiquated Spanish. The two ignored him and stomped over to Carlos, eager for something, he just didn't know what.

"Stay back you demons!" Carlos shouted, holding a cross in front of him like it would protect him from the two female nations. "Lo, I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no…" He didn't get to finish as Cyta slammed him in the face with her football.

"Wait! Felicyta! Don't!" Toris leaned on the door for support out of breath.

"Shut up, You!" Cyta turned around to glare at the Lithuanian who squeaked and promptly shut up as she asked. Unable to ignore the semi-chaos that was his brother's whining (which was incidentally starting to give him a headache) Antonio stood up and got everyone's attention. Meanwhile, Carlos scuttled around the desk, to hide behind his baby brother (truly a pathetic sight, if only Amira and Mercedes could see him now).

"So, what happened while you were out today?" Antonio asked pleasantly, looking between his Italian girlfriend, his Polish surrogate sister, and her brother's Lithuanian friend.

"They attacked me!" Carlos whimpered in a very nasally and very unattractive tone (probably from being hit in the face with a football and having his nose broken) "I was merely instructing the blonde in how it is proper for a woman to behave!"

"Proper my ass!" Cyta raised the ball as if to chuck it at Carlos again, "Dat bastard told me I was going to hell for dressing like dis! As if it's not bad enough dat I got stuck babysitting my broter's best friend now I gotta deal wit your asshole brother!" She gestured to her hoodie and jeans, waving her free arm around a little.

"Lovina, what were you doing?" he asked the brunette, wondering vaguely if he should confiscate her purse on the possibility that she was packing a gun in it before she had time to shoot someone.

"Nothing…" she looked up at the ceiling, "Someone might have thrown a rotten tomato or two at his head…"

"Then it all went to hell from there…" everyone looked at the small man in the doorway. "So Carlos started to lecture Miss Vargas and Felicyta hit him with the football… then they just started whaling on him. Then he crawled out from the fight and started running back here, and they chased him down," Toris explained quickly, looking nervous.

"I see…" Antonio debated his options, on the one hand, he could chastise his girls for attacking someone in a fit of temper, on the other, he liked his limbs where they were and selfishly admitted to himself that it was better if they took their anger out on someone else (namely Carlos) instead of him later. His mind made up, he walked around his desk, slung an arm around Toris' shoulders, and started leading him out of the study. "Come on Liet, let's go have a glass of wine… oh, and girls?" he looked back at them, "Try not to get any blood on anything." Their faces were downright evil as they turned on Carlos.

By the time Antonio and Toris had made it to the kitchen, Carlos was screaming loud enough that Antonio was convinced he could be heard in China and other far off places. Oh well, at least his girls were happy (and wouldn't try to kill him later) and that was all that mattered.


	7. Mischief Managed!

**Title:** Mischief Managed!  
**Pairing:** Spain/Fem!Romano, human names used.  
**Rating:** PG for swearing  
**Plot:** AU Antonio convinces Lovina to go to a Harry Potter convention and strikes a wager.  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, Lovina Vargas,Arthur Kirkland, Feliciana Vargas, Ludwig, Gilbert Bielschimdt, Francis Bonnefoy, Feliks and Felicyta Lukasiewcz, Alfred F. Jones, Yuan Wang (fem!China)

**Language notes:**  
Besame en la boca: Kiss me on the Mouth

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA OR SPAIN OR FEM!ROMANO, JUST THE WORDS I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR TWILIGHT EITHER.**

* * *

"This is stupid! I can't believe you talked me into this!" Lovina looked around, practically glued to her boyfriend's arm. "Is that guy wearing a dress?"

"Aww… come on Lovi, it'll be fun, I promise!" Antonio grinned, watching two people lumber awkwardly past, dressed as a big, spiky dragon.

"I've never even read the dumb books, and you look nothing like… whoever you're supposed to be," she complained, tripping over the hem of the long black robe Antonio had talked her into wearing. "Who are we anyway?"

"I told you already, I'm Professor Lupin, and you're Hermione Granger," he said, poking her with the plastic wand he'd gotten.

"No, Francis, you look absolutely ridiculous!" Arthur shouted, flailing as the Italian and Spaniard approached the group of friends they'd gone with.

"Aww… pourquoi, Arthur?" Francis asked, twirling around.

"Well, for one, you're not a girl!"

"Mais, Arthur, Feliks isn't a girl either," Francis motioned to the blond Polish boy prancing about in his blue Beauxbatons uniform much to the chagrin of his twin sister who looked ready to ram her model Firebolt down his throat and spare herself the embarrassment of being connected to him throughout the day.

"I told you, as long as you wear dat monstrosity, I'm telling everyone we aren't related!" Cyta snapped, smacking him with her broom.

"HEY EVERYONE! THE HERO'S HERE!" Alfred jumped into the middle of the group.

"Who the fuck are you?" Lovina asked, looking him over.

"I'm Harry Potter! The hero of course!" Alfred laughed.

"Ve, Alfred… I thought Harry had black hair…" Lovina's sister Feliciana mused, hanging on the arm of her tall German boyfriend who, for the occasion, had dyed his hair black in order to play the part of Viktor Krum at Feliciana's request.

"What's your point…?" the American blinked at her.

"Never mind…" Feliciana gave up and looked over at her sister, "You're Hermione too! Yay! We match now!" She bounded over to give the older girl a tight hug, rubbing their cheeks together affectionately.

"What? Hey! Stop that!" Lovina wiggled in her sister's surprisingly strong grip, "Ack! Get off, Feliciana!"

"Oi, Toni!" Gilbert swaggered up to them, slinging an arm around the Spaniard's shoulders. "I heard there was a convention of fangirls in the hall next door, and I have a totally awesome plan to crash it."

"Oh! You mean the Twilight-!" Arthur clamped a hand over Feliciana's mouth, telling her that mentioning the series would probably get her mugged by some of the more rabid Harry Potter fans.

"You wouldn't…" Lovina glared at her boyfriend and the albino. "You'd get kicked out, or worse, arrested, and the only reason I'm here is because you promised me food."

"We won't," Antonio grinned at her.

"You will, I know you will," she huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'll make you a bet," he said, "If we pull this off and nothing happens, you have to kiss me in front of everyone, if we get kicked out, or arrested, I'll do anything you want, even let you use me as a clothes horse."

"N-No way!" Lovina shook her head with enough force to make it hurt. Antonio knew how much she hated public displays of affection, she'd hit him often enough for trying to plant a kiss on her cheek or hug her while at school. It would just prove to everyone that she actually maybe felt something for him.

"Please Lovina?" he pouted, batting his eyes at her, knowing it would make her cave in no time flat.

"Alright fine, You win, I kiss you, I win, I'm making you try on all those clothes I've been designing… even the dresses" she huffed. Gilbert grinned and started dragging Antonio away, in effect abandoning Lovina to the mercy of the convention and the people who inhabited it.

* * *

Two hours had passed and Lovina hadn't gotten so much as a glimpse of her Spaniard and his albino friend. She had decided to stick with her sister and Ludwig since there was no way in Hell she was going with Arthur or Francis or Alfred. Cyta had tagged along with them, insisting that if she had to spend more than two seconds in the company of Feliks, she was going to brutally murder someone with one of the many plastic wands floating around. She was joking… at least… that's what Lovina and Ludwig wanted to believe, her face had been enough to make them think she was serious and so they'd decided they'd have to keep an eye on both her and Feliciana. The younger of the Italian sisters was flitting this way and that, trying to look at or try everything she laid eyes on at once. Her arms were full of posters, and buttons, and various candy and food wrappers, grinning brightly as she went to guy find more stuff.

"Good thing this is all free, otherwise we'd both be broke right now," Ludwig commented. Lovina only nodded.

"Ve~ I heard something about going to the East Wing of the convention hall in thirty minutes," Feliciana said, "Say, isn't the East Wing the place where that other convention is?"

"Yeah… probably has something to do with whatever Gilbert and 'Tonio are planning," Cyta shrugged.

"Oi, have any of you seen Francis? He slipped away from us a little while ago," Arthur approached them with Alfred and Feliks in tow. Alfred had his arm around Yuan Wang, a small girl who'd just transferred to their school from China. Apparently, the American had come across her while wandering around the convention and shanghaied her into joining their group. She didn't look particularly comfortable where she was, but then, Alfred had a way of making people feel uncomfortable.

"No we haven't…" Ludwig said, reaching out an arm to keep Feliciana from falling flat on her face.

"Maybe he's involved in Gilbert's plan," Lovina mused. She didn't like this, the entire Trio was unaccounted for and Antonio was so sure about something, he wagered his dignity on it.

"Are we going to go?" Yuan asked quietly.

"Duh!" Alfred chortled, thrusting a fist in the air.

"I'm not putting them on! I like a healthy breeze around my privates, thanks!" Feliks complained, running past the group with Cyta on his heels carrying what looked like a pair of slacks. "Someone help me!"

"Put on some pants, you idiot!" Cyta shouted.

"Come on, let's go early, get the best seats," Alfred said, grabbing the Polish twins by their collars and heading off towards the East Wing. The rest of them glanced at each other, sighed, and followed him as a few other convention-goers wandered the same way they were.

They stationed themselves outside the doors emblazoned "Twilight Convention" and waited as more and more of their fellow Harry Potter fans gathered throughout the next several minutes. Lovina was even starting to have fun, not that she admitted it of course, but everyone spending time together, passing around snacks as they waited for whatever it was that was supposed to happen. Many of the fangirls of the "Twilight" books gave them death glares as they came and went from the large, open doors.

A burst of noise came from inside the hall and immediately, everyone gathered around the doors to watch as huge Hogwarts banners cascaded from the rafters and thousands of brightly colored specks rained down upon the room. "Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans! Just like in the computer game!" Feliciana squealed and set about trying to catch as many of the jelly beans as she could. The hall was bursting with sound as figures swooped down from the ceiling. Lovina had to admit, when the Bad Friends Trio pulled something, they didn't hold back.

The Harry Potter fans were all cheering. Arthur, who normally would have been disgusted by the display, was hollering the loudest of everyone. The Twilight fans stood flabbergasted and shocked, unable to do anything but stare. "It's great, isn't it, Lovi?" someone put a hand on her head and she turned around to look up at Antonio's grinning face.

"I-It's ok, it's way over the top though," she said, crossing her arms in a huff.

"Well then, I guess we could say it was 'Mischief Managed' and I believe _you_ have a debt to collect," Gilbert smiled mischievously.

"Oh yeah! That's right!" Antonio glanced down at Lovina, "I think you owe me a kiss?"

"W-What? Nothing doing, you tomato-idiot! I never said that!"

"Ve, what are you talking about Lovi? We all heard you," Feliciana's face and voice were innocent and the others were grinning.

"Great…" Lovina glared at her sister and looked back at Antonio, "Fine, one kiss on the cheek, that's all!"

"Don't settle for the cheek, Antoine, make her kiss you on the mouth!" Francis shouted over the noise.

"You can't do that! You never specified—!" Antonio put a finger to her lips and grinned.

"Bésame en la boca, Lovina," he told her, leaning in and closing his eyes. She couldn't believe, this, couldn't fucking believe it.

She gritted her teeth and reached up, fully intent on just pecking him on the lips and punching him the moment she pulled away. She didn't expect him to pull her flush against him and start kissing her the way he did when they were alone. She wouldn't shamelessly admit it until much, much later, but she kissed him back with the same vigor. People around them whistled and cameras clicked, not that she really noticed all that much.

* * *

"Lovina! Look at this!" Feliciana waved a section of a local magazine at her the next morning at breakfast.

"Is there something about the convention in there?" Lovina asked as she turned the page…

…and proceeded to spew her tomato juice all over their grandfather because, emblazoned on the page, was a rather prominent picture of her kissing Antonio in front of hundreds of people.

The article was, of course, written by Ludwig with help from Francis. Antonio himself was awakened moments later by a call from a very loud, very irate Italian girl accusing him of letting Francis put the photo in the article.

Regardless, it was still a pretty good picture, Lovina had to admit… until she found out the entire prank was a way to get her to kiss Antonio in front of everyone else.


	8. Tango

**Title:** Tango  
**Rating:** PG-13 for sexual situations, and mentions of sex  
**Plot:** Antonio's tango lessons always lead to more than just fire on the dancefloor  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA**

* * *

He seemed to glide across the floor, the movements graceful, controlled, but incredibly powerful. The smile he normally wore was replaced by a look of utmost passion and concentration as he held his partner in his arms and bent low over her body as if to kiss her before pulling them both back upright. Every time he touched her, it was like someone had lit a fire under his fingertips that left scorching trails across her skin.

The song ended as he pulled her into his arms one final time, his hands moving fluidly up her body to cup her cheek. "Beautiful, Lovina, much better than last time," he said, releasing her.

"Thanks…" Lovina flushed, trying to regain her breath. Antonio grinned, kissing her hand.

"Want to try again?" he asked, eyes dark, "In a different room of course." She flushed even brighter as she realized his meaning.

"N-No…" she stammered out even as he pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her neck, suckling on it gently. "Antonio…" Like in the dance, he ran his fingers up the side of her body, leaving those red-hot trails again. He slowly raised his head, trailing his lips up her throat and cheek until their lips met.

"I need you, Lovina…" his voice was low and predatory, something she didn't miss. It was never good when he used that voice with her, she shivered, feeling desire ripple through her. She forced it to the back of her mind. She didn't want it, no, she would ignore these feelings he ignited in her as he wrapped an arm around her waist and nudged her leg until it was wrapped around his and proceeded to kiss her senseless. Her resolve was crumbling, he knew it before she did as he tangled one hand in her hair, wrapping her curl around his finger and tugging it gently. She moaned against his lips, a low, whining sound.

"I h-h-hate you…" she quivered as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bedroom.

* * *

"Morning, Lovi~" Antonio kissed her forehead, smiling as she blinked sleepily at him. "So, we'll meet again after dinner tonight?"

She scowled, sitting up and wrapping the sheet around her. "What's the point? It's just gonna end with us having sex again… like always."

"Hmmmm…" he grinned, "but you're so beautiful, I can't help myself… watching and feeling you move like that is such a turn-on." She threw the pillow at him and stomped out of bed and into the bathroom to shower. She flushed once she was alone, she really enjoyed their tango lessons… but she wouldn't tell him that, neither would she tell him that dancing with him turned her on as well.


	9. Miscommunication

**Title:** Miscommunication  
**Rating:** PG for language  
**Plot:** Furious over a rumor, Lovina can't force herself to hide her feelings from herself  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

"But Querida, I…" Antonio got cut off by a purse to the shoulder.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Lovina screamed, "You've been seeing Belgium behind my back, I know you have!"

"Lovina, that's crazy, where did you come up with that one?" he asked, rubbing the injured body part.

"Feliciana told me! She said she'd heard it from Netherlands!" she was doing a damn good job hiding her tears. He tried to stammer something out after that, but she wasn't listening. "I've had it, Antonio! It's over! It's fucking OVER!" She hit him with her purse again and stomped out of the house, furious and blinking back tears. She was not going to cry, after all, he was just a guy, there were many of them in their world to choose from, she could do better than Spain.

But damn it if there was no one she could think of whom she felt as much for as Antonio. She hated to admit it, but she even _loved_ the bastard. Of course, with her luck, she'd come to find he obviously didn't feel the same way. Some boyfriend he was, sneaking around with other women behind her back. Why her? She'd just come to find that she loved him. She stopped on the road, just wanting to go back to the house and beg him to take her back.

She couldn't, he'd still be upset at her, or would have called his new girlfriend, or something. She'd have to go back eventually, her clothes and things were still there and she wanted them back before he threw them out. She was going to wait until it was late and he was asleep before going back. She didn't think she could look him in the eye, let alone talk to him. So she found a nice, quiet spot and sat there, not even daring to move.

It was a mistake because the moment she'd tucked herself under the large tree, the tears started to fall. Damn him. Damn Antonio for making her feel like this, like she was worthless, everyone thought that already, but she thought Antonio saw her for more than that. She'd unknowingly given him her heart and he'd taken it and crushed it into dust. She hated him… no, she loved him. She didn't know what to think anymore!

Her cries turned to sobs and she lay down, curling up into a little ball, her shoulders shaking as she fell to pieces.

Sometime in that space, after she'd run out of tears and was exhausted from dry sobbing, she fell asleep, alone under the tree. Her dreams weren't much better than the reality. Fuzzy snippets of happy memories, of time they'd spent together. To know that it was all over now just hurt that much more.

* * *

"A-Antonio…" she sniffled, clutching something soft to her chest. "I'm sorry…"

"Shh… it's alright, Querida, I'm here," someone brushed the hair out of her face and she slowly opened her eyes. "You're alright… Gracias a Dios…" Antonio leaned in to kiss her nose. "You scared me, Querida…" Lovina blinked a little. What was he talking about? And for that matter, why did she ache from her head to her toes? "You didn't come back, even when it was storming, so I went out to find you," she could see now that he looked exhausted, there were dark circles under his eyes and his smile was weary. "I'm glad I found you when I did… you've been very sick."

"What…?" she had no memory of any of that. She tried to sit up. What did she remember? Leaving the house, yelling at him. "Wait… I… I broke with you… you were cheating on me…" she wiggled, trying to get out of bed, but Antonio pulled her into his arms, shushing her, rubbing her back.

"Lovina, I never cheated on you… I called Netherlands and he said he told your sister about when Belgium used to be under my control," he explained, "She just got confused. I'm sorry if I made you upset." She must have still been loopy from being sick because she started crying again. Under normal circumstances she definitely wouldn't have, but she just couldn't help herself. "Shh… Don't cry, Querida, everything's alright, shh…" he softly kissed the top of her head and laid his forehead on it, stroking her hair softly. "I love you…"

"I…" she could barely speak through the tears and the stuffiness, "I love you too… idiot…" She gripped him closer, burying her face in his chest. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… Please forget that I said I wanted to break up with you," there she went again, spilling her guts. Being sick must have really worn down her mind.

"I already have," Antonio kissed her forehead again. He picked her up bridal style and crawled into bed with her. "Now rest, I'll be here when you wake up, ok?" all she could do was nod and snuggle into his chest, feeling sleep easing over her. The last thing she remembered before falling completely asleep was him murmuring to her as he rubbed her shoulder with his thumb and she smiled.


	10. Do Not Disturb

**Title:** Do Not Disturb  
**Rating:** PG for language  
**Plot:** As Lovina grows up, Antonio has to learn to deal with the changes it brings, even if it means giving her some space  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas, Mercedes Rosalinda "Castile!OC" Carriedo, Amira Isabel "Catalonia!OC" Carriedo, Carlos "Aragon!OC" Carriedo

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

When she was young, Lovina would let Antonio take baths with her. He knew that this was a leftover from the days when her grandfather was still alive and people often bathed together. However, as the years went by, she insisted on bathing alone more and more until right around the time she was starting to hit puberty, she locked her bathroom door. Needless to say, the poor tomato-loving Spaniard was quite confused by his darling Italian's actions and, since he was actually pretty desperate for answers, he decided to ask his siblings for advice.

That action in and of itself was a risky thing and something only to be attempted as a last resort since his siblings were, to put it _very_ mildly, a bit strange. He skipped Carlos who, since he was a man, would probably be unable to tell him and end up on another tangent about how the Catholic church had gone to Hell due to its inability to correctly handle the whole Luther problem. His mind made up, he went first to Mercedes, his oldest and most powerful sister.

"Oh, it's nothing to be worried about, Hermanito," she said when he asked, looking up from her embroidery, "Your Lovina's growing up, that's all. She's not a little girl anymore, she's becoming a woman."

"Will you help me then?" he hoped he didn't sound as desperate as he thought.

"I can't, I have to go babysit an Englishman," Mercedes pursed her lips in an expression that Antonio knew meant she wanted to rip someone's vital regions out of their body than quarter what was left with her axe all while forcing said someone to eat his vital regions. Antonio knew from watching that it was not a fun experience.

"Well… have fun on your trip…" he said, knowing that there was one other alternative he really didn't want to ask.

"Talk to Anaïs… Amira… Cataluña… whatever she calls herself now, she should be able to help," Mercedes said dismissively, returning to her (atrocious) embroidery and shooing her baby brother out of her house.

Well now the poor, befuddled nation was in a bit of a bind. He knew what was wrong and what was needed to fix his problem, but certain factors made finding that solution difficult. Relations between him and his quick-tempered, exceedingly-arrogant sister Amira were rather tense since both were rebounding after a peasant rebellion that had been particularly difficult to put down had broken out amongst the touchy Catalan people and their equally-touchy national personification.

It would be a miracle if he could even set foot in Barcelona without getting his head lopped off by her scythe, even if he managed to sweet-talk her into letting him in, would she deal with him long enough to let him convince her to come help with Lovina?

"You want me to what? Move in with you and take care of the girl?" Amira snapped the book shut and all but slammed it on her desk, "No, go ask Mercedes."

"I already have, but she's heading to England and can't," Antonio rubbed the bridge of his nose, "You and I both know that not only is Carlos a bastard, but he'll know nothing about dealing with a girl like Lovina. Please Amira?"

"What will I get out of this?" always one to get to the point, making Antonio flush, he hadn't thought of that.

"I was hoping you'd do it because you want to help out your little brother," he laughed nervously but sobered up, "Listen, this isn't about countries, this is about helping a girl deal with… I don't know, whatever it is girls deal with at that age. I have no idea where to begin, she won't even talk to me."

"And you think she'd talk to me?" Amira arched one eyebrow.

"I'm hoping she will…" the younger nation admitted sheepishly.

"Fine… but this isn't for you, it's for Lovina," Amira sighed and picked up a quill and piece of paper and began to write a letter to her boss, informing him of her absence, "And don't you dare get on me about using Catalan."

"Done, thank you so much for this Amira I…" she cut him off with one look and finished her letter quickly, blowing on the ink to dry it.

* * *

The next several months were a trial as Amira began the slow process of easing Lovina's transformation from a girl to a woman into something that the poor thing could handle. It was difficult since nations tended to grow and mature at different rates from humans and from each other. Every time Antonio tried to check on things he always found himself being hit on the head with something.

Over time, his ability to duck got better.

"Look, Antonio, I get you're worried, but trust me, it's fine. Just don't disturb us and you'll be amazed at the results," Amira promised.

She hadn't let him down, not one bit. The next time he saw his darling Lovina, she was obviously not the same child she'd been before, leaving Antonio dumbstruck as she began to sway down the stairs in a beautiful gown Amira had had made in Barcelona and sent to Madrid. The image of Lovina was perfect… until she tripped on the hem of the gown and went tumbling down the stairs. Antonio caught her in the nick of time and she let loose a string of profanities. Yes, she was still the same Lovi he'd known for years.

* * *

"What are you looking at?" she huffed one lazy afternoon centuries later, "If there's something on my face, tell me, don't just sit there staring damn it!"

"I'm looking at you, Lovina," he smiled, rolling onto his stomach to look at her better. "Beautiful…" She glared at him and got out of bed, sighing heavily when she saw him follow her. "Let's take a bath together, like we used to a long time ago~" she headed him off, slamming the door in his face and locking it. He rubbed his nose where it had been hit, his Lovi could be so mean sometimes!

"No! I like bathing alone damn it! Go away!" she shouted, turning on the water. She could hear him pleading, when would he get that she didn't like to be disturbed at least once a day?


	11. Popsicle

Shockingly, two stories in one day~! This one's very short, from a prompt given to me by the loverly Cyta

**Title:** Popsicle  
**Rating:** PG for Lovina's propensity to drop F-bombs all over the place  
**Plot:** Antonio and Lovina take a break from tomato-picking  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA~**

* * *

"It's so damn hot…" Lovina complained, "Why the hell does your place have to be so fucking hot?"

"Because it's summer?" Antonio sat down next to her with two popsicles, one of which he handed to her. "I'm glad you came out to help with the tomato harvest," he grinned, taking a small lick. She was silent, leaning against the tree they were sitting under to take a break from the relentless sunshine. "Hey, Lovi?"

"What is it? And don't fucking call me that, damn it," she snapped, nibbling the frozen treat.

"Isn't it just as hot, if not hotter at your house?" she looked away, mumbling something about the sea breezes. He laughed. "You're so cute! Can I ask you something else?"

"_What_?" she turned to look at him again, patience growing short. He beamed at her, white teeth contrasting against his darkening tan.

"Can I have a lick?" he gestured to her popsicle.

"Fuck no! You've got your own!" she told him. He pointed to the ground where she saw his lying in the dirt. She suspected he'd dropped it on purpose to sucker her into giving him some of hers. "Fine, just a small one," she relented, feeling him reach out and pull her and her arm closer until the orange popsicle was the small barrier between their faces. He leaned forward, presumably to take a lick of the frozen thing. He licked it then reached over to peck her softly on the lips, pulling away before she could retaliate.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?" she stood up, her face bright red and fists clenched.

"I love you, Lovina," he grinned happily, seemingly ignorant of her fury. He plucked the popsicle out of her grip and started to nibble on it. Lovina could only stare at him, mouth open for several minutes.


	12. No title

This is, at over 3000 words and 8.5 pages single-spaced on Word, the longest short story I've ever submitted... my wrist hurts...

**Title:** None (a.k.a. I couldn't come up with a creative title)  
**Rating:** PG for swearing and for minor violence  
**Plot:** AU It's time for the yearly camping trip and Lovina has a plan to get Antonio to ask her out... sort of. Campfire stories, tent-pitching, and angry Polish girls abound  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, Lovina Vargas, Arthur Kirkland, Feliciana Vargas, Ludwig, Gilbert Bielschimdt, Francis Bonnefoy, Felicyta Lukasiewcz, Alfred F. Jones, Toris Lorinaitus, Vash and Lilli Zwingli, Carlos Fernandez (OC)

**Language notes:**  
Brüder (German) Brother

Buenas noches/Buona notte (Spanish/Italian) Goodnight

**Note about the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (As told by Alfred F. Jones):**

For those who aren't aware, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an American short story by the author Washington Irving. It is based on an actual legend from that part of rural, Dutch New York. The story that Alfred tells is a mostly faithful (albeit shortened) version of the original short story though Alfred and I doctored the ending a little to make it a little more frightening for the non-American kids who don't know the story.

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

"No! No! Don't put that there! It goes in here!" Carlos was flailing at Francis who was attempting to help him set up a tent. Attempting being the key word as the product of their hard work turned out to be a jumbled mess of canvas, nylon, and what appeared to be fishing line.

"Shut up and let me do it my way!" the blond Frenchman snapped, trying to untangle his leg from the monstrosity.

"Your way is wrong!" the lanky Spaniard countered.

"And yours is any better?" Francis gestured towards the tent, that shut Carlos up effectively enough. Ludwig marched over to help fix the tent and soon it looked like the others that ringed the campsite.

"Hey, Cyta, want some help…?" Toris wandered to the blonde Polish girl who was busy setting up her tent and having a little bit of difficulty.

"Shove off!" she snapped, obviously frustrated with the clip that didn't seem to be clipping correctly.

"Here… let me do this—" he knelt down in an attempt to help her, and instead got whacked in the face by a tent pole, "Ow…"

"I said _go away_," the blonde growled, pushing him a little to prove her point.

"Ve~ Sorella, what do we do now?" Feliciana asked, setting the last pole into the ground.

"Hope it doesn't collapse on us in the middle of the night," Lovina said, going over the directions one more time. Why the hell were they out here in the middle of nowhere in the woods again? Oh, right, it was a retreat for them to "bond" and "get to know each other" like they hadn't known each other for years before now. She looked around the clearing. Most of the people she saw she'd grown up with or gone to school with since preschool.

"Are you going to get Antonio to ask you out?" Feliciana asked, bursting with excitement as usual, "You've been waiting all week to do it, right?"

"Shh!" Lovina put a finger to her lips. "Don't blurt it out!"

"Why not? Everyone knows you like him…" Feliciana trailed off when she noticed Lovina glaring at her. "Come on, you and me are on cooking detail, we've got to make sure that idiot Alfred doesn't try to blow up the grill like last year."

"Oh right…" Feliciana trailed after her.

* * *

The foodstuffs were secure and tucked away so that no hungry animals (or kids) could come steal them, and Feliciana and Lovina were free to just roam and talk. "Lovina, Feliciana," the Italian sisters turned around to see Cyta walking towards them with Lilli Zwingli who looked upset and like she had been crying.

"Ciao Cyta, Lilli~!" Feliciana grinned and waved as the other two approached them.

"Is something wrong?" Lovina asked, noticing that Lilli's face was, in fact, a little tear-stained and Cyta seemed upset about something.

"It's Vash," Cyta said evenly, "Lilli's been worried. Apparently she hasn't seem him for a few hours."

"And you want us to help see if we can find him?" the Polish girl nodded in response to Lovina's question, looking unhappy at the though of the missing boy. "Well, Feli and I will ask around, if you'd like, maybe we could talk some of the guys into looking in the woods."

"Tak, God, I swear, when I get my hands on him…" Feliciana sighed and Lovina grinned. Vash would be in for the ass-kicking of his life when Cyta found him and she wouldn't feel a bit sorry for him.

Deciding that splitting up would be faster, Lovina and Feliciana took different sides of the campground. "What? You're looking for Vash? Can I help?" Antonio asked after she asked him.

She was about to turn him down, but remembered what she was trying to do and sighed. "Sure, why not?" He grinned at her and hopped up from tuning his guitar. "Why don't we go ask Ludwig? I mean, they're cousins right? He's bound to know where he is."

"Yeah, couldn't hurt to ask Gilbert either… of course, Vash might be hiding from him…" Antonio scratched his cheek, something that generally meant he was thinking, a rare occurrence for him.

"Why's that?" to answer the question, he gave a noncommittal shrug as they walked up to Ludwig who was reading a magazine he quickly stashed upon noticing them and blushed furiously. Lovina rolled her eyes at the action and posed her question.

"Let's see… He pitched his tent immediately after getting off the bus and that's the last I saw of him," Ludwig said after a few minutes, "Knowing him, he probably went off into the woods. He's not the most social of people."

"Antonio," Lovina shot a glare at the Spaniard who was watching a butterfly a couple meters away, "thinks he might be hiding from Gilbert."

"Probably to avoid a repeat of last year," he sighed when he noticed her blank look, "You left early because you were sick so you missed Gilbert getting him drunk enough to start yodeling."

"Oh…" she'd heard rumors about the incident but never once believed them to be true. "Anyway, if you see him, tell him that Lilli's worried sick and that he'd better get his ass back here so that he can assure her he's still alive." She left out the part about Cyta kicking his ass because for one, it was inevitable, for another, Lovina wanted to see his face when he got jumped the moment he made an appearance, and lastly, the beating was his own damn fault in the first place.

"Alright," the German nodded stiffly, yet politely and Lovina turned away, her work done.

* * *

Later that evening, the campfire had been lit and they were all laughing and chattering as they roasted marshmallows over the flames. In an effort to get Antonio to notice her as more than a mere friend, Lovina had purposefully sat beside him on his log and, claiming the night air was making her cold, had leaned up against him. This seemed to have worked since he had draped his arm around her body and pulled her close. He was absentmindedly stroking her arm, making her blush, but silently triumphant. Now… if only she could get a kiss out of him…

"Now the Hero's going to tell a story!" Ever the loudmouth, Alfred had leapt to his feet, nearly upsetting Arthur and… that one quiet kid whose name no one could ever remember. "Girls, hold onto your boyfriends and hope they can protect you," he laughed. "This is the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A long time ago in upstate New York a man named Ichabod Crane came to the small town of Sleepy Hollow from Connecticut to be the new schoolmaster. He was a tall, skinny man with a small head and a very large nose. Many people said that he resembled a scarecrow that had gotten down off its cross, he came into this isolated little town one fall day and that is where the story begins…

"Ichabod was news the moment he walked into town. He was a good schoolmaster, though pretty lenient towards his students, especially the ones whose mothers were good cooks because, though he was extremely thin, he had a large appetite. He was very good at singing, according to people and often made a bit of extra money teaching people how to sing. He was known as a flirt and soon became very popular with the ladies in town. However, there was one girl that especially caught his fancy. Her name was Katrina, and she was the only child of the richest farmer in the area. She was the most beautiful girl any man had ever set eyes on and she was rich, which made her quite the catch for any man looking for a wife and wanted to get rich himself. After a while, Ichabod had fallen in love with Katrina and decided that he wanted to marry her.

"This did not sit well with Bram Bones, a young man with the reputation of being an irresponsible practical joker, for he wanted to marry Katrina too. However, he didn't have the same respect around town that Ichabod did, in fact, Katrina herself had been put off by his rowdy manner and his habit of scaring off all other potential suitors, a fact which Ichabod himself ignored and openly pursued her, much to Bones' annoyance. In the race for Katrina's heart, Bones found himself losing as Ichabod began to gain the favor of the young lady's father and so he came up with a plan to scare the man, who had a firm belief in ghosts, out of town.

"Sleepy Hollow has always had numerous legends and stories about ghosts and the locals were well familiar with all of them, particularly the story of the Headless Horseman. They say that the Headless Horseman is the ghost of a German Hessian who lost his head in the war and that he comes looking for his missing head, riding a large, black horse and carrying a pumpkin. The story was frightening enough to someone like Ichabod who came from another state, but Bram had another trick up his sleeve. On Halloween night, the entire town was invited to the home of Katrina's father for his famous party. It was there, when it was nearly midnight and everyone had gathered around the fireplace to tell stories that Bram Bones stood up and recited the tale of the Headless Horseman. He noticed the fear on the man's face, and he dropped his voice. 'If you encounter the Headless Horseman,' Bones said, 'Be sure to ride for the covered bridge and make it all the way across, otherwise he'll take your head for his own!'

"Ichabod left the party early that night so that he would make it back to town in time to get a few hours sleep before having to teach in the morning. It was dark that night, the clouds covering the moon in short bursts. The wind howled, making eerie sounds as it whistled through the trees. The branches swayed, casting shadows of clawed hands in what little moonlight there was. Poor Ichabod was scared out of his mind as he passed through the woods and rounded the bend, coming upon the quiet Sleepy Hollow churchyard where the Headless Horseman was said to be buried. He passed the churchyard without incident and the covered bridge was in sight. Maybe the legend was wrong after all and there was no Headless Horseman.

"But then the schoolmaster heard the strangest, most spine-chilling noise he'd ever heard in his life. The hair on the back of his neck rose and he turned around slowly to see a rider on a tall, black horse standing on the hill behind him. Ichabod could see from here that there was something odd about the rider, but he couldn't quite make it out. Then, the moon appeared from behind the clouds, illuminating the figure. Now Ichabod could see what was wrong: the man had no head. Terrified, Ichabod spurred his bony horse onward and the Headless Horseman uttered another terrifying cry, galloping towards the poor schoolmaster who turned around hand forced his mount to go faster, hoping to make it to the bridge before the specter could catch up to him. However, since this was no mortal horse and rider, the thing gained easily until he could hear the horse's hot breath at his back. Ichabod was almost to the bridge when his exhausted horse gave out and he went tumbling to the ground. Pure fear ran through his veins as he got up and ran with all his might, trying to get across the bridge where he would be sure to survive…"

Alfred stopped and Lovina sat back, realizing that she'd been leaning in to hear the American better.

"V-Ve… Alfred, did Ichabod make it…?" Feliciana asked quietly.

"No one knows," Alfred told her, "when he didn't show up for school the next morning, the townspeople went out to look for him. When they crossed the bridge, all they could find was his hat and a few droplets of blood. Several people, including many residents of Sleepy Hollow believed that the Headless Horseman had taken his head. Some people thought Bram Bones had killed Ichabod Crane in order to do away with the only real rival he had, especially since he and Katrina were married shortly afterwards, however no one could come up with any proof that Bones had killed Ichabod. After that, people searched for the unfortunate man for weeks, and never found the body so he was ceremoniously put to rest in the Sleepy Hollow churchyard and to this day, people have claimed to see a tall, thin apparition wandering about searching for his missing head and for the man who got away with murdering him… "

"Hmph, can't you do better then that?" Arthur grumbled, crossing his arms. "That story's absolutely preposterous!"

"That story was pretty scary…" Lilli whispered from where she say huddled at Cyta's side. "I don't want any headless people to come get me…"

"They won't," Cyta promised her, "I'll make sure they won't" She didn't believe in this ghost crap that Alfred and Arthur were pretty passionate about, not for one second. Even still, it had been a good story, and something she would remember to tell later on.

Lovina shivered, forced to admit that the American was actually good for something besides getting news passed around. She'd found herself hanging on to every word he'd said and had even felt a shiver of fear pass through her at the mention of the Headless Horseman. "You ok, Lovi? Did the story scare you?" Antonio smiled down at her, rubbing her arm again.

"N-No, I'm still cold," she huffed, using that as an excuse to press herself even closer to him. He laughed a little and shrugged out of one arm of his jacket to wrap it around her. She flushed as she got a whiff of his scent from the material and laid her head on his shoulder. Things around the campfire returned to normal: Alfred and Arthur argued, people roasted marshmallows, laughed, and told jokes, Cyta pushed Toris when he tried to scoot closer to her, Feliciana started babbling at Ludwig again about pasta or something very similar.

The sound of a snapping twig startled them all into silence. In the dark woods behind them, they could hear rustling, the noises becoming steadily louder as time passed. There was something out there, and it was coming towards them. Lovina felt Antonio's grip tighten around her and he seemed to pull her closer as if to protect her from something. Feliciana had grabbed Ludwig's arm, holding it in a vice-like grip as she stared terrified into the dark space beyond Cyta and Toris' shoulders. Alfred had ducked behind Arthur, quivering as he peered out from behind the smaller Englishman. Carlos and Francis were clinging to each other, looking absolutely moronic and sniveling in fear.

Unafraid, Cyta picked up a rather large, dangerous looking stick and stood up, ready and waiting for whatever it was that was scaring the hell out of her classmates. The bushes rustled and someone barely had time to emerge from the woods before getting Cyta's stick to the face. Alfred shrieked loudly, in a pitch that most girls couldn't even reach, Arthur covered his ears and started swearing. Francis and Carlos actually began to cry while Gilbert had hidden behind Ludwig's back, begging whatever creature had come upon them to not "Kill him because he was too awesome to die." Antonio actually lost his goofy grin and scowled at whomever it was who had come into their camp, still holding onto Lovina.

"Ow… what the hell…?" Vash Zwingli sat up, a hand to his bleeding nose.

"Brüder!" Lilli cried, getting up and practically tackling him, "I was so worried! I didn't know where you went or why…!" Extremely confused by everything that was happening around him, Vash patted Lilli on the head, still holding his nose, trying to staunch the bleeding.

"She's been worried sick about you," Cyta growled, glaring at the blond boy as Toris wisely got Lilli out of the way. "You left for no reason and didn't tell her… do you know what happens next?"

"Should I…?" he gulped at the slightly murderous gleam in her eye as she advanced towards him with her stick.

"Cyta… do you have to do this…?" Toris pleaded, hoping he could calm her down enough to reason with her.

"Tak," she gave him her blank stare and he squeaked, pulling Lilli to the other side of the fire, knowing that reasoning with the Polish girl would be impossible at this point. Calmed down after the fright, everyone returned to normal, except for Vash who was shouting, trying to plead with Cyta to let up as she gave him the ass-kicking of the century, talking late into the night when the chaperones chased them into bed.

"Well, tonight was interesting," Antonio grinned down at Lovina before they made their ways to their tents.

"Yeah…" she mumbled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"So, buenas noches then?" he turned to go to his tent and Lovina gathered her nerve, grabbing him by his shirt.

"Wait…" she blushed as he stopped and turned back around to face her once more, looking confused. Then, she didn't think, she just reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him softly on the lips. "Buona notte…" Lovina's voice was soft and she just wanted to run and hide in her sleeping bag. Antonio grinned again, pulling her close to kiss her back.

"Maybe we could meet for dinner after we get back?" he asked once he'd broken the kiss. Lovina nodded, and they separated to go to their tents. She felt like she could fly and she settled down to sleep with such an uncharacteristically dreamy smile, Feliciana worried, but Lovina didn't care. She'd finally gotten the dumb Spaniard to ask her out.


	13. Masterpiece

I had another one, but I hated it so I scrapped it for this little drabble, the prompt being "Art" and given to me by Anina on HoH. After this, I swear I'm going to sleep! I swear! It's not 4:37 in the morning (totally is)

**Title:** Masterpiece  
**Rating:** G a couple little "damn"s  
**Plot:** Lovina's never really been good with art  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas, Vash "Switzerland" Zwingli

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

"It's beautiful… what is it?" Antonio cocked his head sideways to look at the canvas before him.

"It's the tomato garden outside," Lovina pointed out the window to her right. Antonio looked between the painting and the garden, trying hard to find the similarities between the two. "If you think it sucks, just tell me, damn it!" she snapped, waving her paintbrush at him. It left a streak of bright green paint on his cheek and they both blinked. She couldn't help the giggles that escaped her and he grinned, dipping his finger in the bright red paint on her palate and making a streak to match his on her cheek.

"There, now we match," he surveyed his handiwork and grinned, wiping his face and leaving red paint trails all over it. She bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud at the sight, watching as realization slowly dawned on him. She stuck her finger in the white paint and drew a long white stripe down the middle of his forehead and his nose.

"I've just claimed you for Italy," she announced proudly. "Oh no you don't…" she gave him a look when she saw him going for the yellow paint. "Don't you dare, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo…" he all but tackled her, smearing his yellow-coated palm on her cheek and hair and forehead.

"You belong to me, Lovina, you always have," he said, tapping the tip of her nose with a red-paint-covered finger. "Mine…" he wrapped his arms around her, coating her clothing in paint.

She shrieked angrily, grabbed the palate and dumped the contents onto his head, making sure she coated his hair and clothes properly. "You idiota!" she flailed at him. Of course, he wasn't about to take this lying down and retaliated, inciting a paint war that last for a good thirty minutes before something happened that caused them to end up on the floor making out.

"Excuse me…" the couple looked up at the rather flustered-looking Vash standing in front of them, holding a stack of papers. "I brought those documents for you to sign, but since you're busy I'll just leave them in your office and go home…" The blond all but ran from the room as Antonio and Lovina blinked after him.

"Damn it, I'm all covered in paint…" Lovina complained, finally getting a good look at herself.

"I think you look good," Antonio told her, "Your finest masterpiece."

"Vash practically fled from us, we look like we got in a fight with a bunch of kids with finger paint!" she pointed out, gesturing at him and herself.

"Because we basically did," he laughed, pulling her close again. She knew he was right and brought her arms up to wrap around him, smiling as she leaned back. Under the streaks of green, red, and white paint, she saw his cheeks flush before he smiled back at her, brushing her now-yellow hair out of her face. "By the way, I meant what I said earlier, you belong to me," she wasn't sure she wanted to argue with that. She nearly did, but decided against it in favor of not ruining the moment.

"Fine," she huffed, "I belong to you…" He bent down to kiss her again, only to be stopped by her hand on his cheek, "But, you belong to me."

"Hmmmm… fair enough," he grinned and captured her lips again.


	14. Need You Now

This could probably be considered a "songfic" though I only made minor use of the lyrics. Odd song though, considering I'm not huge on either Lady Antebellum or "Need You Now"... though I do kind of like the song now... the fic was inspired in part by the song, but in part by the side comic "Boss Spain's Control of South Italy Part II" where Romano reflects on how he feels second-rate compared to his younger brother

**Title:** Need You Now  
**Rating:** PG for language  
**Plot:** Lovina can't always cover up the hurt she feels, but Antonio will be there to let her know she's wanted  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA OR THE LYRICS TO THE LADY ANTEBELLUM SONG "NEED YOU NOW"**

* * *

_Picture perfect memories,_  
_Scattered all around the floor._

Even though she was the older of the two Italies, Lovina always felt like she was unwanted, unnecessary. She couldn't blame people for thinking that way when she really thought about it. After all, Feliciana was sweeter, happier, more talented, and much better all-around than Lovina. Everyone loved the younger sister, the older one, people could do without, besides, who needed a second Italy anyway?

She tried not to let it bother her all the much, after all, they were right, Feliciana was the better of the two. At least Lovina wasn't under any pressure, she could pass all that off on her sister. She was free to go where she pleased and do what she wanted. She wasn't really all that important so no one cared what she did.

It still hurt though. At night, when she was alone in her room and she was trying to go to sleep, the pain seemed to invade her heart, spreading it throughout her body like a disease as if it was trying to tear her apart from the inside out. Each heartbeat was painful and even seemed to mock her as she heard snippets of conversations, voices without faces, old memories coming back to haunt her. She always curled into a ball, covering her ears and trying to block everything out. _Unwanted… unneeded… no one likes you, you bitch… Feliciana will always be better than you…_ her mind seemed to taunt her. That was always when the tears started. Always the first quiet few, then the flood as she tried to control herself enough to keep her sobs quiet. She never dared to be too loud, otherwise she might disturb someone with the screams of agony she wanted release. She'd cry until she fell asleep, waking up to a stuffy nose and salt-crusted, bloodshot eyes.

One night, the pain was worse than usual and she lay in bed trying to muffle the sounds of her cries with her pillow. Pulling up to breathe, she let out one single wail before quickly turning her face to the pillow once more. She didn't hear the footsteps outside her door, or the creak of the hinges as it was opened. "Lovi?" the voice seemed distant, muddled with all the voices of her memories taunting her as she began to feel even more miserable and pathetic. "Lovi, what's wrong?" someone laid a warm hand on her shoulder and she flinched. "Why are you crying, Querida?"

"J-Just go away, you b-bastard…" she whispered, choking back a sob. Damn it, of all people to walk in on her, it had to be Antonio. He said nothing, but gently picked her up, cradling to smaller form in his arms and sat on the bed.

"Tell me what's the matter, Lovi, please?" he asked, brushing her tears away with his thumb.

"S'none of your damn business…" she said, resisting the temptation to fling herself into his arms and cry her heart out and tell him everything she'd kept hidden for the centuries she'd been alive.

But she couldn't.

If she couldn't even tell her own sister, how could she tell Antonio just because he'd come in and was now hugging her close as if any minute she'd turn into smoke and disappear.

_Because you care for him, you fool_… just for a moment she wished she could block out the acidic voice that was her inner self. _Let's face it, you like him, but you know there's no way in hell he could ever possibly return your feelings. It's obvious he prefers Feliciana to you and the way he's holding you now is just the way anyone would hold a crying child._ She looked away from the man, somehow miraculously managing to hide the fresh tears. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

"Querida, please tell me what's wrong…" he said, gently stroking her hair. "Did someone hurt you?" he looked upset at the notion, she noticed as she glanced at him through the hair hiding her face.

Yes, yes she wanted to say. Everyone who'd ever looked at her and judged her to be worthless, as less that her sister, everyone who called her nothing. "No…" she said finally, trying to make it sound convincing.

"Lovina," his use of her full name brought her up short, "Don't lie to me, this isn't the first time I've heard you crying at night." She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Tell me what this is about, please…?" he flushed lightly before continuing, "I don't like it when you cry like that… I want my Lovi to be happy and smiling… sort of… well… happy in the way that Lovi is happy." He cupped her cheek in a callused palm, wiping the tears away again. "I can't stand to see you hurting and be unable to do anything…"

"I…" she decided to hell with the acidic voice, she just needed to tell someone how she felt, to scream to the world that she was not insignificant in her own way. In a few minutes, everything she'd kept hidden away from everyone but herself was spilled out in front of Antonio like someone had cut her open, exposing everything inside to the world.

"Oh Lovi…" the pain in his voice shocked her as she tried to wipe away her tears. He held her close, his grip on her tightening. "I had no idea…" he whispered, "I'm sorry…" Antonio released her briefly to tilt her chin up and kiss her softly on the lips. Weary from all her crying and her mind too upset to think about hitting him, she kissed him back. It was innocent and slightly clumsy, but it made her feel wanted, hell, maybe even loved. "I will be here for you whenever you need me, for whatever reason, I want you to know you aren't worthless…" he promised, hugging her close, "I need you, Lovi."

* * *

_Its a quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now.  
Said I wouldn't come, but I lost all control and I need you now.  
And I don't know how I can do without, I just need you now._

Somehow, she'd found herself standing on Antonio's front stoop in the middle of the night. She was shaking badly, trying to determine whether or not to just turn on her heel and go home.

But she couldn't, she didn't think she could stand to deal with what she'd just seen. Lovina rubbed her arms, she'd rung Antonio's doorbell, but she knew the Spaniard was a pretty heavy sleeper at times and might not have heard it. Anyway, she should just leave, find a hotel or something and stay the night. She must not have been thinking to have just arbitrarily pulled her robe on over her pajamas and come all the way out here, she didn't even call first. By all rights he could just tell her to get the fuck off his front porch and go home. But he wouldn't… would he? She turned away, tired of waiting for him to come to the door and tell her to go away.

"Lovi…?" Antonio's sleepy voice stopped her in her tracks. "What's wrong…?" He looked at the clock in the foyer, "It's one-fifteen in the morning… shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I… I saw him, Antonio…" she whispered, rubbing her arms against the chill of the night she could feel through her thin robe.

"Who, Querida?" she turned back around slowly, doing a remarkably great job at hiding her tears.

"Grandpa Rome…" she bit her lip, "He was visiting Feliciana, she was asleep, but all the same… he saw me too… didn't even acknowledge me and walked right past me like I wasn't even there…" Antonio didn't even say anything but reached out and pulled her into the house where it was warm, holding her to him. "I promised myself I wouldn't do this but… I can't stand being alone… not right now…"

"Of course, Lovi…" he smiled, "Come on, let's go back to bed, I'm tired." He took her hand leading her upstairs. Unspoken words hung in the air as she followed behind him. They both knew it, that Lovina needed Antonio and he would always be there at any time of the day or night to hold her, to love her, to let her know that she wasn't worthless.

_And I wonder if I ever cross your mind.  
For me it happens all the time._


	15. A Moment of Silence

**Title:** A Moment of Silence  
**Rating:** PG for language  
**Plot:** Just once, Antonio would like to not have Lovina yelling at him.  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas, mentions of others

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA~**

* * *

Antonio dragged himself into the house. He'd forgotten how much Alfred could talk… or how loud he could be when he and Arthur started arguing, which meant Francis got pulled in, then Ludwig started yelling, then Vash had whipped out an assault rifle from nowhere and told everyone to shut the fuck up or he'd shoot. Feliciana had started babbling about pasta or something to Belgium, then Gilbert had crashed the meeting, inciting violence from Elizabeta and Chopin from Roderich. Ivan had decided to take advantage of the chaos and together he and Natalia started tormenting the Baltics, only for Natalia to get brained by a football courtesy of Felicyta and the two of them started going at it (for one so verbal about her hatred for Toris, the Polish woman was surprisingly protective of the Lithuanian.) Then, if he'd thought it couldn't have gotten worse, Heracles started fighting with Sadiq… again, Peter Kirkland had snuck in and was blowing spitballs at Arthur who was madder than a hornet already. As for everyone else, Antonio liked to believe that they had headed for cover the moment Arthur's nonexistent control of his temper disappeared.

Just another typical world meeting… aye Dios mio… Antonio checked the time on his phone. He was supposed to have been home an hour ago so he could go shopping with Lovina.

The tired Spaniard groaned and flopped onto the couch. Any second now, she was bound to come skulking out of whatever room she'd holed herself up in and give him the bawling out of his life. Wonderful… he massaged his temples, hoping to stave off the massive headache that he could feel making itself known. He loved Lovina, he really did, but there were times when he just did not want to deal with her loud, demanding personality. Was it really too much to ask for a little compassion every now and again? A little bit of understanding? He'd spoiled her too much growing up and he guessed this was the price to pay.

He heard her come downstairs, her bare feet pattering against the old wood as she approached him. He braced himself for the inevitable words. "You're late," she said, from the huffy tone of her voice, he could imagine her with her hands on her hips, looking very unhappy.

"I know, I know, Querida… things just got… hectic…" he sighed, hoping that it would be enough to placate her.

"Well… I went ahead and went without you, it was hard finding everything though," she sighed, shockingly calm. "But the girl at the store was able to help." Something was wrong. Someone had kidnapped his bitchy, self-centered Lovi and swapped her for this sweet, quiet clone. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She looked exactly the same from the clothes she was wearing to her hair curl. She was frowning as was normal. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?" she snapped.

"Oh, no, everything's fine," he chuckled, slightly apprehensive.

"Anyway, everything should be set for dinner tonight so…" she blushed and approached him, moving him so that she could sit behind him on the couch.

"Lovi, are you sick?" he felt her forehead just to make sure and backed off the moment he saw her glare.

"Feliciana called me after the meeting, in tears," she explained, "I figured you'd need some quiet time…" she blushed a little and wrapped her arms around him, letting him lay his head on her shoulder. The Spaniard blinked, a bit surprised, but smiled up at her.

"Gracias, Querida," he saw her smile and snuggled up to her, wrapping his arms around her in return.

"Welcome home, Antonio," she whispered, shifting in order to make him more comfortable. She fell silent, letting him enjoy the quiet as he relaxed, slowly falling asleep in her arms.


	16. Mi Manchi

**Title: **Mi Manchi (I miss you)  
**Rating:** PG for language  
**Plot:** Why did she always feel so empty when he left?  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas, Francis "France" Bonnefoy, Gilbert "Prussia" Bielschmidt

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

Lovina flopped down on the large bed, not caring if she disturbed the covers the maids had worked so hard to perfect. She stared up at the ceiling, trying to pick out the brushstrokes and the different details in the design above her head. The sun was dipping down over the horizon, but she ignored it. The big house was quiet and seemed to be so empty. The head maid had told her it was probably because the master of the household, a certain dimwitted Spaniard, wasn't there, headed off for parts unknown for some reason or another.

She supposed she should have been used to it by now. Antonio was always leaving for days, even weeks at a time. She didn't know where he went or what he did, she never really wanted to ask. She took a deep breath. Sooner or later, dinner would be ready and someone would come looking for her, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She wasn't hungry anyway.

Lovina rolled over onto her stomach, feeling odd. She was restless, melancholy, and strangely quiet. Without Antonio, she felt… empty was the only way to describe the soft aching in her chest whenever he was gone. It was too quiet, too peaceful around his house when he was gone and she felt very out-of-sorts about it. Reaching out, she pulled on his pillow, turning the neatly-made bed into a mess. The pillow smelled like him and she buried her face in it, wishing for him to come back soon.

One of the maids found her a little while later, curled up on Antonio's bed, snuggling into his pillow. The woman smiled, retrieved a blanket from a nearby compartment and laid it over the young Italian woman whose only reaction was to clutch the pillow even closer and murmur Antonio's name as she dreamt.

* * *

She missed him.

Damn it, she missed the bastard. It explained everything she'd been feeling. She couldn't fucking believe it, she wanted him back, she wanted to see him. She sat in the large courtyard of Antonio's big house, kicking her feet against the stone bench. Why did he have to leave so often? She hated having to feel this way, so it was his fault, damn it.

Loud noises at the gate made her jump to her feet. Could it be…? Ignoring her shoes, she ran for the entrance, dodging servants and soldiers. She could see him now, standing at the gate, axe slung over his shoulder, and smiling like the idiot he was. Her breath hitched in her throat and her heart sped up. A few steps, just a few more steps and she would be in his arms, telling him how much she missed him, how much she wanted him to stay and not leave. She was brought up short by two men carrying a large trunk, Antonio was out of her sight and she fell back to earth. What was she doing? She could never tell him she missed him, he'd laugh at her!

"Lovi! I'm home!" Antonio rested his axe against one of the thick walls and enveloped her smaller form in a hug, "I missed you so much…" Lovina blushed, trying not to speak up, trying to not wrap her arms around him and hug him back. "Did you miss me too…?" he asked?

_Yes! Yes I missed you! I missed you so much… I feel so empty when you leave, I just want you to stay with me._ Her mind screamed the words at him, trying to get through his dense skull. "No… of course not, Idiot," she grumbled instead, realizing what she said only after the words had escaped her mouth. He actually looked a bit hurt at that and she turned her face away.

* * *

"You're leaving again?" Lovina set her spoon down, "But you just got back three weeks ago…" The news made her insides go numb and her heart clench as she stared at the Spaniard calmly sipping his wine across from her.

"Yes… I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning, Gilbert and Francis are ready to move against Roderich and I have to be there," he said, not even looking at her. "Why so interested anyway?" She bit her lip, "You've never cared before."

"B-Because I…" because she what? She was worried about him? She was going to miss him? She couldn't bear the thought of him getting hurt? He seemed to notice her inability to come up with anything to say and walked around the table towards her.

"Lovi…" he cupped her cheeks in his hands, "What's wrong, Querida?" Lovina then tackled him (accidentally of course) knocking them both to the floor as she buried her face in his vest. "L-Lovi?" he was understandably shocked at her actions, but she didn't care.

"Don't go…" she said, his clothes muffling her words. Antonio lifted them both off the ground, petting her hair and kissing the top of her head. "Please… don't go…" were her cheeks wet? Damn it! Antonio looked at her and smiled sadly, using his thumb to brush her tears away.

"I'm sorry, Querida, I wish I didn't have to go, war is no fun…" he told her, a haunted look creeping into his eyes. From her meetings with his siblings, Lovina had learned about his somewhat turbulent past and all their infighting. "I'd rather stay here and eat tomatoes with my Lovi… unfortunately, I have a promise to uphold…" he rubbed her back, burying his face in her hair. "I'll try to come home as soon as I can, I promise."

"You'd better, damn you…" she sniffled.

"I will, Lovi, I will…"

* * *

The sun was just starting to rise when she woke up. The space on the bed beside her was devoid of its previous occupant and her heart clenched. Was she too late? Was he gone already? Not even bothering with her slippers or robe, she ran out of the house with her nightgown billowing around her knees. She could see a line of soldiers marching into the distance and three figures at the back, still close enough for her to catch up if she ran, which she did. "Antonio! Antonio!" she shouted, quickly losing her breath from running barefoot over the rocky path.

"Antoine, I do believe you have a little follower," Francis tapped the brunette on the shoulder, looking extremely amused as Lovina stumbled towards them.

"Oh God, Antonio…" Gilbert sighed, "Tell her to go home, we don't have time for this, we have to prove to that prissy Austrian how fucking awesome I am." Lovina stopped short to catch her breath and flip off the Prussian. Antonio laughed and walked over to her.

"You came to say goodbye? That's awfully sweet of you, Lovi, but you should go back home," Antonio set his hands on her shoulders.

"That's not all, Dumbass," she huffed, tugging on the lapels of his coat so that she could kiss him without standing on her tiptoes. The Spaniard was completely shocked by this sudden, unwarranted, and oddly pleasant action and had to sit down on the ground before he fell. Lovina knelt in front of him, fixing him with her trademark glare. "If you fucking get yourself killed, I'm going to drag your sorry ass back from Heaven and kill you myself," she told him, her face and voice dead serious. She leaned forward, inadvertently thrusting her breasts in his face, and whispered in his ear, "I'm going to miss you, so you'd better bring me something nice back to make up for it."

Francis and Gilbert were attempting to smother their laughter to the point where Francis was turning blue from lack of air and Gilbert was crouching on the ground, shaking as he laughing into his hand. "S-Si Lovi… maybe you should go home… you're not exactly decent…" Antonio stammered, face as red as one of his precious tomatoes. The Italia drew back, hands on her hips. "But thank you anyway," he smiled despite the blush. He stood back up, brushing off his jacket. "I'll be home soon, Lovi, I promise," the Spaniard leaned forward to brush his lips across hers, cupping her cheek in one hand. "I'll miss you too."

With that, he turned and started walking away, waving to her as he disappeared from her view.


	17. La Danza del Diavolo

My first attempt at Dark!Spain... attempt being the key word

**Title:** La Danza del Diavolo (Devil's Dance, Hell's Dance)  
**Rating:** PG-13 for sexual situations  
**Plot:** If feeling like this was a sin, just send her to Hell already  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA**

* * *

Love was like a dance, every movement graceful, controlled, but prone to slip-ups and occasionally some improvised steps.

Her sister said that she'd heard that from Roderich, the man who'd raised her as a child in the Holy Roman Empire's house. Lovina had scoffed at first, there was no way that was even remotely possible. First of all, it was way too messy to be anything close. Second of all, she seemed to be the only one in the relationship who even cared about romance, Antonio usually just smiled, nodded, and went along with what she wanted just for the hell of it.

But then something changed.

He came home one night in an odd mood, the Italian couldn't really describe it… like something had taken hold of him, but she couldn't tell what. Of course, she'd stood up to bawl him out for being home so late but no sooner had she opened her mouth, he had practically slammed her against the wall, kissing her more roughly then he'd ever kissed her before. It was needy, demanding, even forceful and the shock made her gasp, allowing him time to thrust his tongue in her mouth. Her struggles against him seemed to only spur him on, making him growl in desire, pulling her into his arms and carrying her up to the bedroom.

That night would not be one she would soon forget. It was vastly different from how they'd made love in the past. Every single touch, every kiss, every bite felt somehow darker, more like lust than love as he teased her, tortured her. There was a dangerous glint in his eye, something she hadn't glimpsed in the centuries since he'd been knocked out as a major power. It both unnerved her and drew her in, made her want more. But more was not what he was giving her. Instead he continued to touch, continued to suck, continued to lick. He tortured her until she broke, screaming his name in ecstasy, only then did he become one with her.

She counted herself as a good Catholic. How could she not? Contained within her borders was the city of Rome. But how could she be if she gave into Antonio's darker passions? How if she went willingly to him like a junkie to her dealer, desperate for a fix?

She'd been told all her life to avoid sins of the flesh, to avoid such longing, such fire and passion. She'd listened up until now and found out that there was no use in denying herself any further.

Her sister had told her that love was a dance. Lovina supposed Feliciana was right for once, but instead of the waltz the younger of the Italies imagined, Lovina could only see a dance of fire, of dark, burning passion. It was the same passion she saw in her lover's eyes as they began their dance.

If feeling like this was a sin, just send her to Hell already. Let Antonio lead her there with his Hell's Dance.


	18. Hellfire

And here we go another attempt at Dark!Spain, more like Inquisitor!Spain (I bet you weren't expecting it, nobody does *shot for blatant Monty Python reference*) This is another songfic, more of an actual songfic than "Need You Now" since I used the entire song in the story. The song is "Hellfire" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (yes, the Disney version, but it is a bad-ass song and movie), which is the song about the villian Frollo's obsession with Esmeralda the Gypsy. As you might imagine, this isn't exactly a happy fic.

**Title:** Hellfire  
**Rating:** PG-13 for sexual situations  
**Plot:** AU Inquisitor Antonio begins to fall into madness as his desire for the gypsy Lovina spirals out of control  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez Carriedo

Romulus Vargas is the temporary name I've assigned to the Roman Empire just for the purposes of the story.

**Language Notes (or a translation of the Gregorian chant that is included in the song, marked in both bold and italicised writing):**

"I confess to God Almighty

To blessed Mary always Virgin

To blessed Michael the Archangel

To all the Holy Apostles, to all the saints

And to the Father

I have sinned

In thought

In word, in action

Through my fault (x2)

Through my most grevious fault (Repeat "Mea culpa")

Lord have mercy (x3)"

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA OR THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (DISNEY VERSION)**

* * *

_**Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti**_  
_**Beatae Mariae semper Virgini**_  
_**Beato Michaeli archangelo**_  
_**Sanctis apostolis omnibus sanctis**_

Antonio returned to his chambers, reveling in the warmth of the fire one of his servants had though to light upon his arrival at the palace. And here he thought he'd have to return to a cold, dark study… maybe he could finally get some work done. He sat at the ornate desk, picking up a quill and parchment and beginning to write what had happened. They'd convicted three new heretics and executed two more. Such vice in what was supposed to be a pious world. It made him sick to even think about it.

_Beata Maria  
You know I am a righteous man  
Of my virtue I am justly proud_

_**Et tibit Pater**_

_Beata Maria  
You know I'm so much purer than  
The common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd_

_**Quia peccavi nimis**_

Abandoning his work, he got up to stand by the large window, gazing with cold eyes on the darkened city below. Didn't those filthy peasants know any better? Did they think they would escape God's judgment because they lived in their squalor? He'd stamp out all the evil that lurked just beyond his sight. He smiled at the thought of seeing the heretics and the vulgar miscreants burning at the stake.

The face of a young woman filled his vision so suddenly, Antonio backed up, knocking into his chair. When he looked at the window, she was gone and he put a hand on his chest to calm his heart. That girl… he knew her. She'd been at the execution that morning fighting with the guards. Yes… that was right, if memory served him they had convicted her father, one Romulus Vargas, a gypsy caravan leader from Italy, on the charge of heresy and licentiousness. He had at least two children, daughters. He'd seen them both when the man had been arrested.

_Then tell me, Maria  
Why I see her dancing there  
Why her smold'ring eyes still scorch my soul_

_**Cogitatione**_

The younger of the two, an auburn-haired beauty who was just starting to make the full transformation to a woman sang in Italian as her older sister danced. She (her name was Lovina if Antonio's basic knowledge of Italian was correct when Vargas had been shouting at the girls to run as he'd been dragged away) was lovely as well, darker-haired and less angelic than her sister, but when her hazel eyes had caught his, the Spaniard couldn't deny the rush of heat, of desire that coursed through his veins.

_I feel her, I see her  
The sun caught in raven hair  
Is blazing in me out of all control_

_**Verbo et opere**_

No! He pounded the stone wall, feeling that exact same desire as he recalled her defiant face. This was unholy! He heard her screaming as she fought the soldiers, trying to get to her father, as if her pathetic pleas could overturn the Church's verdict. The younger one, the beautiful one huddled amongst the crowd crying, begging the soldiers to spare her father, that they would leave the city if they would at just have mercy on him because there was no one else to care for them.

It was easy to ignore the girl, so many others had tried the same thing. Lovina though, she'd shouted, she'd screamed, she'd fought, she'd cursed his name and his family for doing this. He'd watched her, eventually threatened to arrest her and assign her the same fate as her father. All the while, that flame burned through his veins. He wanted her, he couldn't deny it. To hold her in his arms, to claim as his…

Antonio shook his head. No, he had to resist the impure thoughts that coursed through his mind. He scowled into the fireplace, startled to see a vision of her in the twisting flames.

_Like fire  
Hellfire  
This fire in my skin  
This burning  
Desire  
Is turning me to sin_

Her, she was doing this to him. He didn't know how, but she was responsible for it. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair, trying to rid his mind of the desire to have her in his bed.

_It's not my fault_

_**Mea culpa**_

_I'm not to blame_

_**Mea culpa**_

_It is the gypsy girl  
The witch who sent this flame_

_**Mea maxima culpa**_

By now, he was consumed with thoughts of her, of her skin, her hair, her eyes, her voice. He could see her now, standing in the flames, in the shadows, in his arms. Everywhere he turned, everywhere he looked, he saw her. Damn her to Hell! She had sent this plague upon him in retribution for killing her father! He should have known! She'd been mumbling and screaming at him in Italian, that must have been her putting her curse on him! That made her just one of the sinners! She was a servant of the Devil!

_It's not my fault_

_**Mea culpa**_

_If in God's plan_

_**Mea culpa**_

_He made the devil so much  
Stronger than a man_

_**Mea maxima culpa**_

_Protect me, Maria  
Don't let this siren cast her spell  
Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone  
Destroy Esmeralda  
And let her taste the fires of hell  
Or else let her be mine and mine alone_

He had to have her, sinner or not, the flames which consumed him wouldn't allow him to lose her. There she was, in the fire again, no, she was stepping out of the flames, approaching him. Antonio reached out, feeling a surge of pleasure in his lower regions, but the vision disappeared like smoke the moment he had her in his arms. He needed her, and he would do anything to have her in his grasp.

But what if there was another man? Antonio scowled. She would be undeniably _his_ and no one else could claim her. He would make sure of that. He was good at finding charges of heresy, he was charismatic enough to persuade his fellow Inquisitors to put someone to death based on a few pieces of evidence.

_Hellfire  
Dark fire  
Now gypsy, it's your turn  
Choose me or  
Your pyre  
Be mine or you will burn_

But how to ensnare her? She was a gypsy, and the gypsies were good at hiding themselves when they didn't want to be found. Doubtless they would have moved their caravan after their leader's execution in order to avoid future tragedy. There was a question of the girl herself. From what he'd seen, his Lovina wasn't going to come easily. Maybe if he charged her with a crime she'd be desperate enough to go for his deal… no, she'd probably choose death.

Her sister, she'd agree to a bargain to save her little sister and herself from death, wouldn't she?

_**Kyrie Eleison**_

What was he doing…? Antonio stepped back from the flames. He shivered at the bout of fear that washed over him. This girl really did hold a terrifying power over him…

_God have mercy on her_

_**Kyrie Eleison**_

_God have mercy on me_

_**Kyrie Eleison**_

In the end, he couldn't force the desire for her, that burning need to have her disappear. The more he thought about her, the more obsessed he became, the more he needed her to sate his human needs. He gripped the fireplace mantle, staring into the flames until spots danced in his vision.

He'd have her.

He'd have her if it was the last thing he did and no one else would take her away from him, even if he had to burn her himself.

_But she will be mine  
Or she will burn!_


	19. Clubbing

I HATE WRITERS BLOCK... also, I apologize for any weirdness, this took me a week to write because I kept going back and rewriting it...

**Title:** Clubbing  
**Rating:** PG-13 for mentions of sex, language, and underage partying  
**Plot:** AU A night at the club goes awry  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, Lovina Vargas, Feliciana Vargas, Felicyta Lukasiewiscz, Toris Lorinaitis, Amira Carriedo (OC), Anina Sinclair (OC belonging to a friend), Mathias (Denmark), Pieter (Netherlands)

**I DO NOT OWN HETALIA~**

* * *

The flashing lights created spots in Lovina's vision while the loud, frenetic music pounded in her ears, making her head hurt and she laid her head on the table, trying to block everything out. "I can't believe Feliciana got you to sneak her in with rest of us…" it took the Italian a couple minutes to register what the Polish girl sitting across from her said. "Between her and Anina…" Lovina glanced up to watch the blonde knead her forehead in an attempt to stave off the headache. "I swear, if I didn't like either of them so much, they'd be goners…"

"Yeah…" Lovina pushed the glass of wine away from herself, wanting very much just to get out of there, but no, Grandpa said she had to keep an eye on her baby sister. Cyta, on the other hand, was going to keep an eye on her best friend and said best friend's Danish uncle who had a bad reputation for getting himself so drunk, he passed out in the streets. She watched Toris glance around nervously, unlike the two girls, he had no glass of alcohol in front of him.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" he sighed, thinking that maybe sneaking into the club just to be the designated driver was not such a good idea. Cyta took another long drink of the wodka in front of her and the Lithuanian worried about what she might do if she had too much. She caught him staring at her and gave him an unhappy look and he blushed, looking down at his hands.

"Oh hush, Toris, Mathias knows what he's doing, he's snuck Anina in more times then I can count," Lovina told him as if the fact was something to be proud of.

"Lovi! Lovi! Look!" the Italian lifted her head to see her sister pulling a tall man towards the table. He was smiling idiotically, not seeming to care that the girl attached to his arm was nearly pulling the limb out of its socket. "This is Antonio! He's the guy I wanted you to meet!" the younger of the sisters chirped, barely heard over the music. "He's from Madrid and he's really nice too!"

"It's nice to meet you, Señorita Vargas," he beamed at her and she could instantly feel her cheeks flush. She was actually grateful for the lighting in the club since trying to explain away the blush would have been awkward and no one would have fallen for it.

"Yeah, you too…" she grumbled, trying to keep her tone as brisk as possible. Though she'd intended it to be an insult, he beamed wider than ever.

"Why don't I get us some drinks?" he offered, causing Feliciana to squeal with delight and beg for the nicest wine on the list.

"Sounds good to me… I'll need another," Cyta glanced at the nearly-empty bottle of wodka in front of her.

"You should go with him, Sorella! You know, just to make sure he gets everything right!" Feliciana nudged Lovina towards Antonio without giving her a chance to refuse. He grinned and laughed, resulting in her blushing more deeply and glaring at everything and nothing.

He chattered to her as they pushed through the crowd towards the bar, the noise seeming to multiply the closer they got. Lovina picked up drunken shouting in… that weird Scandinavian language Anina was found of speaking in (though she never had any idea what the redhead said) and another language that sounded very much like it. Antonio and Lovina had to jump back as two men went skidding across the floor, both shouting and struggling. "Onkel! Stop!" speaking of Anina, there she was, trying to talk some sense into the blond Dane, but having little success.

"Oi! What's going on?" the crowd parted to watch Cyta stomp through to the two struggling men. Now that she had a clear shot of them, Lovina could see that the man under Mathias was none other than Pieter, the Dutch student. Feliciana had told her a few weeks ago that he had a crush on Anina and had been seen hanging around the high school waiting to walk her home. "And I can see dat's a stupid question…" the Polish girl glared at the ground. Pieter rolled over, trying to escape Mathias' attempts at strangling him. Anina grabbed him and pulled him off her uncle, keeping him restrained and whispering things to him that made him blanche nervously. Mathias, however, tried to get up and tackle Pieter again.

"Oh no you don't…" Cyta and Lovina grabbed hold of both the Dane's arms, somehow managing to restrain him despite his struggles. Fed up with the fighting, Lovina stomped on his foot with the heel of her stiletto, feeling a rush of satisfaction when he howled in pain.

"Cut it out, Idiota, do you _want_ to get arrested again?" the Italian hissed.

"But he put his arm around her!" the man protested, yelping when Cyta elbowed him in the gut.

"Look," Lovina leaned down to whisper into his ear, "The police get called, they start asking questions, they're going to find out we snuck four underage kids in here, and we'll all be in deep shit."

"Damn it!" he growled, but didn't protest as the girls dragged him towards the restrooms and doused him in cold water.

"What are we going to do with him now?" Cyta nudged him with the toe of her sneaker, "I'd rather not sit back here all night babysitting him and I know Anina won't…"

"Maybe Toris…?"

"No, he wouldn't last a second against Mathias, besides, he's supposed to be driving us home anyway," Cyta shook her head.

"If you want, I can ask my sister to do it," Antonio said, scaring the crap out of both of the girls. "She's not really doing anything so she wouldn't mind."

"Can she handle a heavy, strong, drunk Dane?" Cyta glanced at the blond seated on the floor, looking rather grumpy. Antonio beamed, bobbing his head up and down before disappearing presumably to find this sister he was talking about. Mathias tried to get up but only succeeded in getting sat upon by both of the girls. The ensuing struggle in which he tried to get them both off of him was a complete disaster and ended with him getting popped in the nose by one of Cyta's elbows.

"Wow, Antoni," the trio looked at the sound of someone snorting in laughter. Antonio had returned with a woman in tow who was covering her mouth with a hand and seemed to be laughing at the sight. It was obvious the two were siblings from the curly brown hair and tanned skin to the slightly oblivious air.

"Hermana, these are the people I was telling you about," Antonio grinned, making introductions as if he hadn't come upon them wrestling like idiots, a thought which made Lovina blush. "The blonde girl is Felicyta Łukasiewicz, the brunette is Lovina Vargas, and the man is Mathias… whose last name I forgot. Everyone, this is my twin sister Amira."

"And you want me to watch the man, si?" Amira asked after the pleasantries were exchanged.

"Only for a couple hours, then we'll be ready to take him home," Cyta nodded, getting up and giving the man one last kick for good measure. Amira laughed and went over to inspect the Dane, nudging him gently to make sure he was still alive.

"Alright, that's fine," the woman nodded and Cyta and Lovina were free to rejoin their friends at their table.

"Dance with me, Lovina?" Antonio held his hand out to her. "Please?" Lovina drained the glass of wine Feliciana had gotten her.

"Why not?" she took the offered hand and let him lead her to the dance floor.

The rest of the night passed in a blur and soon, Toris was trying to manhandle a very inebriated Cyta out the door, dragging the giggling Feliciana behind him. Lovina wobbled unsteadily in the rear, clutching Antonio's arm as he led her back to his car. Anina and Pieter had slipped away sometime after the fight and Amira had promised to tend to Mathias until he was sober enough to function correctly.

To say Lovina was nonplussed when she woke up next to Antonio the next morning was a rather large understatement. He rolled over, smiled at her, and pecked her on the lips before the memories of the night before came rolling back to her like the waves of nausea she felt before throwing herself out of the bed and sprinting to the bathroom to pay tribute to the porcelain god.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one to have woken up in a state of shock. After she'd gotten cleaned up and dressed (oddly content just to stay with Antonio) she'd gotten a panicked phone call from Toris who was practically screaming about Cyta being on the rampage. His story was that she pounced on him the moment they'd dropped Feliciana off at home and things had gone on from there, and now that it was morning and she was sober and hungover, she tried to deny everything that had happened and was now trying to murder him with one of his ancient computer speakers. Lovina sighed at that, assured him that everything would be fine and no, she was not going to talk Cyta out of her rage because she enjoyed her life very much. She bid him a cheerful farewell and hung up as a strangled scream came over the phone.

"Whatever happened to Mathias?" Antonio asked, leaning over and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Hermana had a funny look in her eye…" he mused, shrugging.

"Oh well, he's an adult, a stupid adult, but an adult, he can handle himself… maybe," she shrugged. He made a soft noise at that and kissed her shoulder.

"So, want to go somewhere tonight?"


	20. Resistance Is Futile

**Title:** Resistence is futile  
**Rating:** G for slight  
**Plot:** She falls for it every single time  
**Characters:** Antonio Fernandez "Spain" Carriedo, Lovina "Italia Romano" Vargas

**I DON'T OWN HETALIA**

* * *

"Lovi~" the Spaniard came up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Why won't you go to dinner with me?"

"Because I don't want to," she said, flipping the page in her magazine, "Now get off, dumbass!"

"But you said you liked this place!" Antonio protested. He couldn't help but feel disappointed. "You never want to go out…" Lovina could practically hear the kicked-puppy face in his voice. "Do I make you unhappy or something?" there was a hint of sadness in his voice and the arms around her shoulders drooped and went limp.

"What the hell are you talking about, Idiot?" she snapped, wondering what the fuck he was upset with this time.

"I can't make Lovi happy…" he said. At this point, the Italian was unsure if he was being serious or not. She felt him lean his head against hers.

"Idiot…" Lovina grumbled, turning around to face him, her heart tightening at the sight of his forlorn expression. She sighed and leaned forward to kiss him gently. "You do make me happy…" she admitted after a few seconds of trying to come up with the proper words. "I just…" he leaned forward to capture her lips, nearly knocking her backwards off the couch.

"Let's go out tonight!" he chirped, his spirits seemingly restored, "Pleeeeease Lovi~?" He turned the full effect of his big green eyes on her and she blinked, blushing.

"Oh alright fine," she gave in and he grinned at her, hugging her close.

"Why do you still even try? You know that resistance is futile, right?" he asked as he nuzzled her neck sweetly.

"Shut up."

"I love you too, Lovi," he laughed and kissed her again.


	21. The Tale of la Principessa y el Matador

Hello! I apologize profusely for that really long, unforeseen hiatus. I left stuff unfinished, didn't I? Well, anyway, this will probably be the final installment in the series (for now at least, I may reopen if I feel like writing lots of Spamano again (I blame those Nordics, argh).

Anyway, this is a sequal to another fic titled "The Tale of the Drinking Contest and the Princess", but it's not really necessary that you read it.

**Title:** The Tale of La Principessa y el Matador  
**Rating:** K+  
**Warnings:** Genderbended nations, a not entirely accurate representation of bullfighting. If you're one of those animal rights people, it may not be for you.  
**Characters:** Rome "Romulus", Fem!North Italy "Feliciana", Fem!South Italy "Lovina", Spain "Antonio", Germania "Sigmund", Sealand "Peter", Aragon!OC "Carlos"  
**Summary:** AU!Kingdoms. King Romulus VII of the Roman Kingdom devises a plan to get his eldest daughter married off.  
**Pairings:** SpainFemano

**Notes:** As I stated above, I do feature a bullfight, however, for reasons of length and time, I cut out several details. I apologize in advance ;;;

**The only things I own in this fic are the AU concept and the character of Aragon. Hetalia, Nyotalia, and all recognizable characters are property of Hidekaz Himaruya**

* * *

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Rome, there lived two princesses. Princess Feliciana was petite, beautiful, and charming to everyone she met. The girl was much loved by the people and everyone wished that one day she would rule the country. However, there was a problem: her older sister, Princess Lovina.

Princess Lovina was everything her little sister wasn't. Yes, she was rather pretty, but her manners were very much lacking, her skin was tanned, her dresses were always torn and dirty, and it was like the girl wouldn't know charm if it came up and slapped her in the face. Where Feliciana spent her days flitting about from one task to the next, Lovina spent hers lounging about eating tomatoes or skimming through books that might hold her interest. She was rude, loud-mouthed, vulgar, and had a tendency to threaten or attack people she didn't like (which seemed like most everyone).

When it came time for her to marry, her father, King Romulus VII was in a bit of a bind. While Feliciana had a long line of suitors ready and waiting to woo her, nobody dared try and tangle with Lovina. The last man who tried ended up being chased out of the castle and having tomatoes thrown at him by the princess who claimed he tried to touch her inappropriately (the young man swore up and down that he didn't and never returned).

Needing a solution, he set out for the Kingdom of Germania. Several months before, the story of King Sigmund's infamous drinking contest had reached the Roman's ears and so he was determined to go ask the man's advice. It took him a while to get the German to even receive him (apparently Sigmund was still upset about that little joke with the Roman army crossing the borders). Once in the presence of the blond, Romulus explained his little problem and requested (more like begged) for the wise man's help.

Sigmund gave in and sent King Romulus away with these words: "Hold a contest for a popular event and don't tell anyone which princess you're offering up for marriage." It sounded simple enough, but what kind of a contest should he hold?

A bullfight! Yes! He'd use his prized bull! Soon the decree went out: Anyone who could defeat the king's prized bull in a fight would get to marry his daughter.

Antonio was the youngest brother of Carlos, king of Iberia and when he heard the decree, he couldn't help but want to enter the contest. Five years ago, Iberia had been a poor nation, and Antonio went to work as a gardener at King Romulus' palace to try to make a little extra money.

It was there as he tended to the tomato patch that he met the Princess Lovina. He couldn't deny that she was rough around the edges and somewhat unpleasant at first, but deep down, she really was a sweet, adorable girl and he really liked that, plus, she shared his love of tomatoes so how could he go wrong?

He had his mind set on entering that competition and winning! Only problem was… he wasn't very good at bullfighting. But his older brother was! The young prince trotted off back home to bother said brother into teaching him the art of the matador.

Soon, the day of the contest arrived and King Romulus and his two daughters took their place in the box over looking the ring. A huge crowd had turned out to see the bravest men in all the kingdoms come forth and try their hand at trying to defeat King Romulus' bull. It was an evil-tempered beast, very large for his kind, covered in coarse, dark fur with wickedly sharp horns, and people whispered that certain unlucky criminals were tossed into a pen to be gored to death by the animal. It was an creature that few men would dare face unless they were absolutely mad. Some of the contestants would die today, everyone knew that. Bullfighting was a sport of life or death.

One by one, the prospective suitors tried their hand at defeating the bull. Each one failed. Some lost their lives, finally when one contestant, a small boy from the Kingdom of Britannia, was carried from the ring on a stretcher as two officials tried to restrain the bull, Feliciana began to cry and Romulus let her leave. Lovina stayed, watching the gory spectacle with grim fascination.

They were down to the final contestant, no one had managed to defeat the bull so far and Romulus feared his plan wouldn't work. The contestant was announced and Antonio waited behind a closed door as they released the animal. He swallowed his nerves, hoping the two months of training his brother had given him would be enough. Finally, it was time to take the stage, as it were. One false move and he'd end up another casualty… all for his Lovi…

This was like a dance, he thought, a really frightening one. Time seemed to slow down as he danced around and around the bull, confusing it and evading its charges until finally, the pivotal moment arrived. With a whispered prayer and a held breath, Antonio jammed the blade of the espada he carried into the bull's neck and leapt backwards as the creature convulsed and fell to its knees.

A great cheer rose from the crowd. He'd defeated the bull! Romulus was applauding and cheering. Yay! Now he'd be able to marry Lovina off! Lovina was studying the matador as he bowed and smiled and waved, even as two officials escorted him up to the royal box.

King Romulus made a very long-winded speech about Antonio's bravery and skill at defeating the bull, waxing poetic about the deed and how it was done until one of his advisors elbowed him. "Oh, right… for your bravery, we award you the hand of our daughter, the princess Lovina. Any objections or complaints from Lovina were silenced when Antonio grinned like an idiot, thanked the king, and hugged her… in front of… well… not the _whole_ kingdom but a decent chunk of it certainly.

Weeks later, her suspicions that he was the crazy gardener who taught her how to plant and take care of tomatoes were proven correct and for once (much to her father's never-ending relief) she agreed to be a good little princess and go through with the marriage. Feliciana ended up taking in the little Brittanian boy, Peter was his name and he insisted on being known as the emperor of the great Sealandic Empire (he was really the younger brother of Chief Mage Arthur of the Britannian Kingdom) and spoiling him rotten.

Romulus was happy. His daughter was getting married and he was forging an alliance with the Iberians. Now all they had to do was decide who Feliciana was going to marry… and there was still a long line of suitors.

Well, he could always hold another bullfight.

And then they all lived happily ever after.


End file.
